????2012年伊始，不少創(chuàng)業(yè)公司的高管都把自己手里的那本《精益創(chuàng)業(yè)》（Lean Start-Up）塞回了書架，仰面朝天，為自己將要面對一系列全新的挑戰(zhàn)而唏噓不已。雖然現(xiàn)在討論如何為初出茅廬的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司找到產(chǎn)品／市場匹配度的建議鋪天蓋地，但其中卻暗含著一條奸詐的小秘密：實現(xiàn)適銷對路之際，難題才真正開始。其難點(diǎn)就在于規(guī)?；?。

????櫥窗公司打拼了三四年后，終于實現(xiàn)了上百萬美元的營收，有了一二十名員工，一切都開始步入正軌。此時，壓力才真正出現(xiàn)。公司里的員工會開始幻想：“如果我們公司價值10億美元，那我就算是百萬富翁了！”——我管這種想法叫“影子股票算術(shù)”；公司的諸位風(fēng)投對你的認(rèn)知將從“言之尚早”轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)椤熬哂懈呋貓蟮臐摿Α保慌渑家矔_始打探你的努力工作何時會真正獲得回報。

????然而，事關(guān)規(guī)模化的艱難挑戰(zhàn)和決策正在前方等待著你。只有它們才能催生出真正的價值，而非區(qū)區(qū)的一時進(jìn)展。我發(fā)現(xiàn)，創(chuàng)業(yè)公司一旦開始看到自己的初期投入終于結(jié)出了果實，便會面臨以下幾個最艱巨的挑戰(zhàn)：

????1.產(chǎn)品策略：保持專注vs.拓展范圍。初期產(chǎn)品表現(xiàn)良好；此時的問題在于，應(yīng)該將產(chǎn)品策略拓展至何等程度？如果你認(rèn)為既有產(chǎn)品的現(xiàn)有市場總量（TAM）足以滿足你與投資者的胃口，那就保持專注。然而，通常來說，取得更大勝績的誘惑會誘使創(chuàng)業(yè)者躊躇滿志，通過有機(jī)成長甚或并購來拓展產(chǎn)品范圍。我的合伙人奇普?哈澤爾德喜歡將這種拓展模式稱為“荷葉策略”：全力跳到相鄰的而不是池塘另一端的某片荷葉上。著眼于這種天然的毗連性，企業(yè)可以提高自己的現(xiàn)有市場總量——理想的情況是利用既有的客戶（擴(kuò)大客戶的服務(wù)范籌）、渠道（增加渠道的供應(yīng)量）或產(chǎn)品（開發(fā)天然相關(guān)的附加產(chǎn)品拓展現(xiàn)有產(chǎn)品范圍）。令我常常感到詫異的是，企業(yè)在評估這些連帶機(jī)遇的時候，并沒有仔細(xì)考量競爭策略的基本要素。

????可能會有人因為我擺出一副競爭策略大師的架勢而賞我?guī)酌栋籽郏艺嬲\地建議各位創(chuàng)業(yè)公司的CEO：在評估連帶機(jī)遇的時候，好好地考量一下那片“新荷葉”的競爭強(qiáng)度、進(jìn)入風(fēng)險、替代品的威脅以及供應(yīng)商和客戶的實力。

????2. 財務(wù)策略：功成身退vs.擴(kuò)大融資。火勢正旺時，總是教人忍不住想要再添一把柴。如果顧客購置成本（CAC）為1美元，顧客終身價值（LTV）為2美元，何不籌集個幾百萬美元，獲得更多的客戶？很顯然，這個決策并不輕松。融資是個極其另人分心、操心的過程——再加上股權(quán)的稀釋，以及投資者的選擇，均會對你未來的選擇空間產(chǎn)生深遠(yuǎn)的影響。另一方面，功成身退可能也很教人動心，尤其是對一名從未成功過的創(chuàng)業(yè)者而言。但這同樣會有許多難題需要考量，我的博文《遠(yuǎn)離流動性》（Walking Away From Liquidity）和羅杰?艾倫伯格的博文《賣還是不賣》（To Sell or Not To Sell）中，對此均有闡述。

????At the onset of 2012, many start-up executives are sticking their copy of Lean Start-Up on the shelf, leaning back and bemoaning the fact that they have a new set of challenges ahead of them. Although there is a plethora of advice now being given about how to find product-market fit for your fledging start-up, there's a dirty little secret out there: Once you've achieved product-market fit, the hard work really begins. Scaling is hard.

????After three or four years of jamming on your start-up, you've finally crossed a few million in revenue, gotten north of 10-20 employees, and it's all starting to click. Now the pressure really begins. Your employees start doing what I call "phantom equity math" (if this company were worth a billion dollars, I'd become a multimillionare!), your VCs shift you in their mental models from "too early to tell" to "high return potential" and your spouse starts asking about when all that hard work is going to really pay off.

????Yet, the hard scaling challenges and decisions that will enable true value creation, not just interim progress, are all ahead of you. Here are a few of the top ones that I see start-ups wrestle with once they start seeing their initial revenue projections finally come to fruition:

????1. Product Strategy: Stay Focused vs. Broaden the Footprint. The initial product is working well and now the question is how broad a product strategy should you pursue? If you think the total available market (TAM) for the existing product is large enough to satisfy yours and your investor's ambitions, stay focused. But, typically, the allure of pursuing the bigger win draws founders into ambitious efforts to broaden their product footprint through organic development efforts or even M&A. My partner Chip Hazard likes to refer to the broadening efforts as the "lilly pad strategy": Focus on jumping on to a lillypad next to you rather than across the entire pond. By pursuing natural adjacencies, a company can increase its TAM - ideally by leveraging existing customers (meet their needs more broadly), channels (given them more things to sell) or products (extend the current prodcut footprint with natural adjacent add-ons). I'm often surprised that companies don't think through the basics of competitive strategy when evaluating these adjacent opportunities.

????At the risk of getting some eye rolls for evoking Michael Porter, I encourage start-up CEOs to think carefully about the new lilly pad's competitive intensity, entrance threats, threats of substitute products as well as the power of suppliers and customers when evaluating the adjacent opportunities.

????2. Financial Strategy: Exit vs. Raise Additional Capital. Once things are working well, there is a magnetic power that demands pouring more fuel onto the fire. If the customer acquisition costs (CAC) are proving out to be $1 and the customer's lifetime value (LTV) are $2, why not raise millions of dollars to acquire more customers? Obviously, it's not that easy a decision. Raising capital can be a hugely distracting, draining process -- and the dilution implications, as well as the choice of investors, have deep repercussions on your future options. On the other hand, pursuing an early exit can be appealing, particularly if the entrepreneur has never had a win before, but there are many difficult considerations here as well, which I touch on in a blog post (Walking Away From Liquidity) as does Roger Ehrenberg (To Sell or Not To Sell).