We often hear, this company is growing with the rate of 10X or 100X . Do we really understand the mean of this? do you want to know more? read it till end.
Let me decode it !
In 10X or 100X, X is the initial money or worth or valuation or order or revenue at the time T e.g. today or this quarter or this year.
And 100X is 100 times of today’s money or worth or valuation or order or revenue in a specified time period. Important to note here is that, this time period normally should be short time e.g. 1 year, 2 year. if 100X in 100 years, sorry it’s not a big deal, no point of celebration.
Now comes to the achievement part, Why do we consider 100X growth as a big success or turning point ?
It’s mainly because of two reason 1) It’s a good milestone an order of magnitude change and 2) it’s considered to be crossing the tipping point. Normally there is no looking back from here, business model is proven, customer is loving the product, sales has picked, decent cash-flow and often you have build the brand.
Have you notice, in the whole equations X is the very important factor and second most important factor is the time in which this growth is being achieved e.g. 100X.
Think about if X is zero. What would be the 10X or 100X means? Does it means anything for anyone? does it considered to big milestone? You know the answer!
Big question: Is 100X growth without considering the X meaningful? In my opinion, it’s a big NO.
First, we need to achieve the certain sustainable number which we can define as X before thinking about 100X, otherwise you will always be in the phantom world. And this X could vary based on the business you are, type product and services are offering, target market segment etc.
I will give you an example, if you are starting an e-commerce company to sell the product and service. Is it difficult to get first 100 orders? absolutely not, you can easily scale from first order to 100th order by referring to your friends, family or acquaintance. And you can achieve the 100X growth.
Chose your X very carefully and wisely even before setting up the goal of 10X or 100X.
Let’s talk about the second most important factor which specified time period.
Let me try to explain it by giving an example, if start-up has started in 2020 and did the 100 M turn over. In 2021, it reached to 200 M and in 2022 did the 500 M and by the time of 2024 or 2025 it clocked the revenue of 1 billion. With-in 5 year of inception, turn over grows from 100 M to 1 billion. Another example, another company who started in 2000 with 1 M of turn over and by the time of 2024 or 2025 it clocked the revenue of 1 billion. In 2025, both company have 1 B revenue but it you look the journey of reaching here, it’s very different. One achieve the 100X growth in 5 year and another one achieve it in 15 to 20 years.
You will find several investors, startup mentors promised to help the started-up to achieve the 100X growth, in-fact some investors/mentors has kept their company name as x to100x. These people (I don’t call them started-up) claim to be an expert in helping to grow the start-up from X to 100X. Be aware from these kind of false promises, like in any other places, in start-up also you will find several fraud, cheat so be aware from these kind of peoples/organization who promises this without understanding your business, market segment and it’s you who know better then anyone, so be wise in decision making.
In summary, every org, company, start-up has different trajectory of growth. You being a founder of the company should know better about your domain, market segment. Carefully define your initial X it could 100 or 1000 or 1 MM order. Once you have define your X than plan for 10X and next 10X. Never ever make the mistake of choosing the wrong X and directly aiming for 100X growth. One step at a time, have the incremental mentality.
Thanks reading, please share your thought on this. This will help me to write more on this topic.
