It’s not an everyday occurrence that a startup churns out billion dollars in revenue within the first few years. If you look at the world’s startup history, the names of successful, billion-dollar Silicon Valley ventures—that currently lead the business world—are only a handful.
But that doesn’t mean that new software development companies or startups cannot make it big. With relentless innovation, a solid transformative purpose, and the right processes in place, any startup can become exponential these days.
And as you may know, being exponential means generating more revenue, scaling at a faster rate, and, most importantly, making a bigger, widespread impact.
Read this blog to learn the 15 secrets of exponential organizations that make them different from linear businesses. We’ll discuss what helps ExOs rack billions, stay ahead of the competition, and have an impact larger than some of the world’s economies.
And most importantly, we’ll tell you how to turn your startup into an ExO with Vates ExO Launchpad.
What is an Exponential Organization?
Exponential organization is a term that hadn’t been heard until 2014. Earlier, startups that rapidly reported billions of dollars in revenue were called unicorns. Today, owing to these unicorns’ exponential growth, they are known as exponential organizations or ExOs.
An exponential organization generates much higher revenue than its competition in lesser time, boasts a 10x faster growth rate, and implements agility across all its practices. Exponential organizations are truly exponential in every sense.
15 Secrets that Help ExOs Grow Faster
In the last few years, Vates, as an ExO, has mentored many startups that were keen to become exponential. Through its IoT solutions and ExO Launchpad, Vates enabled startups quickly generate more revenue than linear businesses.
Here are the things we teach our startups that ExOs do differently than linear organizations.
Innovation at the Core
If you look at the success story of Amazon, the e-commerce giant that is now also leading cloud computing. You’ll see something intriguing. Amazon, ever since 2010 has continued to double its R&D budget and is enthusiastic about innovating exponentially.
At the core of Amazon’s success lies innovative product development that has helped this ExO grow, generate more revenue, and become an industry leader across versatile trades.
Big Data at the Back
We also have the example of Google making the most of Big Data analytics. Exponential organizations are using algorithms to their benefit and maximizing the use of data analytics services such as Vates. This is because ExOs understand that data is the driving force of today’s and tomorrow’s business success, and there’s no other way around it!
Leveraging Technology
In addition to making the most of the Big Data boom, exponential organizations are also staying ahead with exponential technology. If you look at Meta, the giant has harnessed the power of AI, ML, and edge computing to expand its footprint in the sector. ExOsknow that their organizations can only continue to grow exponentially with exponential technology.
Agile Development
Agile software development is also the key to success for exponential organizations. When they hire teams for software development, ExOs have ditched the traditional, slow, and redundant development models. Instead, ExOs are keen to hire agile software development companies such as Vates to benefit from top-notch quality and faster marketing.
Minimizing Overhead Costs
According to ExO experts, exponential organizations are growing rapidly because they minimize their costs before anything else. ExOs such as Uber and Airbnb have reported millions in revenues within the first year without spending not more than six figures on infrastructural development. Today, Uber is the largest ride-hailing service that owns no fleet. Similarly, Airbnb is one of the leading hotel chains that doesn’t have a single property.
Maximum Outsourcing
You may have heard about software outsourcing firms. But exponential organizations are changing the meaning of outsourcing. In fact, to minimize their recruitment and overhead costs, ExOs are keen to outsource most of their operations and only keep the core development tasks within the company. From software development to resources, ExOs fully maximize the potential of outsourcing.
Focusing on Business Development
However, despite outsourcing as much as possible, an ExO never undermines the importance of business development. Exponential organizations, unlike linear businesses, don’t think of surviving today and generating profit. Instead, ExOs are looking into the future with their product development and continue investing in research and innovation that makes their business relevant for years.
Prioritizing Customer Development
Instead of conceptualizing an idea and thinking “Can this be built?” ExOs think of a product and ask, “Is this needed?” This change of approach is known as customer development. Customer development helps ExOs save time and money, and offer products that have demand in the market. ExOs also test their products’ viability with an MVP. Thus ExOs further polish their product development with the help of customer development.
Giving Autonomy
Instead of following the red tape and bureaucratic systems, exponential organizations are all about giving freedom to their teams. Therefore, most exponential organizations ditch the traditional hierarchical structures and encourage ideas from all team members. ExOs inherently are free-spirited and give autonomy to enhance the creativity of employees.
Promoting Flexibility
In recent years, most business leaders have started to pay attention to flexibility. This cultural shift has helped businesses acquire the industry’s top talent, retain loyal employees, and benefit from a low turnover. Exponential organizations are no different when it comes to promoting flexible work culture and harnessing their employees’ potential by ensuring better work-life balance.
Maximizing Scalability
Exponential organizations are ditching the traditional practices of asset-building and development. Instead of hiring in-house IT teams that add to the overhead costs or spending on infrastructures ExOs are opting for scalable solutions. This means that ExOs rely on software development services such as Vates for scalable IoT solutions, IT infrastructure, and IT teams to manage projects when needed.
Invest Where it Matters
As discussed above, exponential organizations are keen to minimize overhead costs through outsourcing and scalable solutions. Similarly, when it comes to investment, exponential organizations invest only where it matters. In most cases, ExOs piggyback themselves on outsourced assets and leverage shared resources to save money for business development.
Long-Term Thinking
Exponential organizations have future-forward thinking that helps them innovate and disrupt the industries. The long-term approach in terms of product development, customer development, and business processes make ExOs stand out instantly. This is opposed to a linear business model that works with short-term planning and a limited view into the future.
Global Product Application
If you look at the successful exponential organizations, none have a geographically limited product. Amazon, Facebook, Spotify, Waze, Airbnb, and Uber, all ExOshave offered a product with global applications and clientele. This approach is also known as turning crowds into a community and long-term, loyal customers.
Doing It Differently
Instead of thinking about making changes to the existing products, ExOs think of offering different products or services. This is because exponential organizations are innovative and want to set precedence with their product offering. ExOs hire data consulting companies such as Vates to come up with products that have never been seen or heard of before.
How to Become an Exponential Organization?
If you are excited to turn your startup into an exponential organization, then here’s a guide list of things to do:
- Find your Massive Transformative Purposeto lay the foundation of your ExO.
- Test with a Minimum Viable Product to successfully implement customer development.
- Participate in ExO Sprint conducted by Vates to innovate, accelerate, and disrupt.
- Continue to innovate as you go along. Innovation will keep your startup ahead of the competitors and relevant in the industry.
- Hire the right people and maximize their potential by channeling creativity and giving autonomy.
- Outsource more than invest to keep your costs low and profits at a higher end.
- Get rid of the corporate mentality that hinders growth and creativity in your ranks.
- Know your customers and their needs before launching a product.
- Don’t make the mistake of ignoring data analytics.
- Be willing to do more than generate revenue. Make an impact with your idea!
Start the ExO Journey with Vates
Are you ready to emerge as an industry leader? Are you enthusiastic about growing exponentially? Then get in touch with us at Vates. Vates is a South American software development company that offers data analytics and consulting, IoT consulting services, and custom software development.
Talk to our international software development company today to join our Vates ExO Launchpad. We conduct ten-week-long ExO Sprints for startups that wish to innovate, disrupt the industry, and augment growth in the global business world.
