I remember the year I nearly broke down from too many caffeine-fueled nights trying to scale one more SaaS funnel.
I’d gotten used to living by dashboards: signups, churn, conversion rate — everything was a metric I had to tweak.
The problem was, I started to see my own energy levels as a metric to “optimize,” pushing myself harder than any A/B test ever could.
Eventually, something snapped.
I traded my endless nights for early-morning deep work sessions, giving myself the space to experiment with daily habits the same way I once tested product features.
Below, I’ll discuss 8 approaches that I’ve seen top-performing founders and entrepreneurs swear by, especially when things get chaotic.
1. Market penetration
One of the simplest ways to grow is by doubling down on the audience you already serve.
This often means new marketing tactics or product tweaks that solve your customers’ needs more effectively than your competitors.
Think of it like broadening your existing customer base without necessarily jumping into a different market just yet.
I’ve watched SaaS founders push market penetration by repositioning a product’s core feature to tackle a trending pain point.
For instance, if you’re in a competitive space with lots of look-alike products, you can carve out a bigger slice of the pie by focusing on underserved verticals.
That way, you can invest in better onboarding and ramping up brand awareness in your current market.
It’s not always the right play, though.
If your product or industry is saturated and brand loyalty is minimal, you may be better off moving into fresh territory.
But if your market is still plenty big — and you think you can win by being more accessible or more specialized—market penetration is a straightforward place to start.
2. Build partnerships
Often, one of the fastest ways to expand is through strategic partnerships.
Instead of doing it all alone, you team up with complementary businesses or platforms, share resources, and gain fresh leads who are already primed to care about what you’re offering.
Partnerships can come in all shapes and sizes: co-marketing campaigns, cross-promotions, and even joint ventures.
In the last startup I helped scale, we formed a partnership with a cloud solutions provider that introduced our product to an entire ecosystem of enterprise clients.
According to Deloitte, a recent tech survey of 500 founders showed that 68% credit ecosystem partnerships for a solid chunk of their new customers.
That’s a huge vote of confidence in synergy-driven growth.
It’s key, though, to be selective. Look for partners who share similar values, want the same level of commitment, and see a genuine benefit in linking arms.
Nothing kills a partnership faster than misaligned goals or forced collaboration.
3. Market disruption
Sometimes, the best path to growth is blowing up “business as usual” and introducing a totally new angle.
Market disruption comes in when you discover a more efficient or more exciting way to solve a problem that existing players have been ignoring.
Classic examples include big names like Uber and Airbnb, but you don’t have to transform entire industries to be disruptive.
Even a small pivot — like using subscription-based billing or bundling new features — can reshape how customers think about your niche. I once consulted for a team that used flexible billing terms in a notoriously rigid industry. That alone qualified as disruptive enough to set them apart, bringing in new customers who craved a more modern approach.
Of course, disruption is inherently risky. But if you’re noticing that your entire market has gone stale, a well-timed shake-up can trigger a wave of customer attention and brand loyalty.
Just be sure to identify precisely what you’re disrupting and why customers will care.
4. Product diversification
When you already have a robust user base, consider branching out with new offerings that serve different segments.
This strategy is all about finding adjacent needs your core audience has — or new opportunities that align with your skill set—and creating or acquiring products to meet them.
I’ve seen software companies expand beyond analytics dashboards into fully fledged suites that include SEO tools, content scheduling, or even project management solutions.
It’s a bigger leap than adding new features to your existing product, but it can be worth it if you’re solving problems for a similar market.
An eye-opening study by CB Insights found that the majority of today’s billion-dollar “unicorn” startups combined product-led growth with flexible pricing models very early on, effectively doubling how long customers stuck around.
That’s a perfect example of diversification: they didn’t just build one product—they built a complementary ecosystem that amplified customer lifetime value.
5. Adopt new channels
Tapping new marketing channels is a staple move for entrepreneurs who want to scale fast.
A lot of businesses start with one or two acquisition channels — maybe they only rely on organic search or old-school outbound email.
That’s fine at first, but eventually you need to experiment with fresh platforms or you’ll stagnate.
I once coached a founder who was skittish about social media for a fairly niche B2B product. But as soon as they tried short, educational video content on LinkedIn, prospects started rolling in.
The same can be true if you decide to leverage podcast appearances, influencer partnerships, or even offline events.
The key is to test systematically, track results, and kill what’s not working quickly (more on that next) rather than sink resources into every new shiny platform.
6. Improve the customer experience
It’s not rocket science: if people love doing business with you, they tend to stick around longer, share feedback, and refer others.
And if they hate the experience or feel like a number in your support queue, they vanish in a hurry.
I’m big on personalizing the user journey, whether it’s dynamic recommendation engines or small touches like tailored onboarding messages.
At one of my previous startups, we set up an automated email funnel that offered advanced features only after a user had tried the basics.
Engagement soared because it felt personal, even though it was automated.
A better customer experience can also be a differentiator in crowded markets.
Whether you stand out by having super-fast response times, or by surprising your customers with “just because” moments, you’re building loyalty that translates into repeat business and word-of-mouth marketing.
If you want to keep growing, keep treating your customers like valued human beings, not conversions.
7. Create content for real people, not bots
When I first began writing marketing copy, I fell into the trap of stuffing it with buzzwords to score SEO points.
Turns out that’s a fast way to sound robotic — and lose your audience. It took me a while to realize that the best content feels like a conversation between two humans, not a machine delivering bullet points.
Writing that way doesn’t just win hearts; it also helps your brand stand out in a sea of formulaic posts.
On a broader level, research from McKinsey Quarterly highlights “staying customer-obsessed” as a core mindset of top-performing, high-growth companies.
If you’re cranking out pages of keyword-stuffed text without truly addressing your audience’s real-world problems, you’re missing the point (and the people).
Empathy, personal storytelling, and genuine insights matter a lot more than sprinkling in random keywords.
So the next time you’re developing a blog post, video script, or social media caption, try to picture a single reader scrolling through it on their phone.
Ask: Will they actually care about this message?
If the answer is no, rework it until you’re providing something valuable and relatable. That’s how you end up with content that resonates on a human level—and ultimately drives real growth.
8. Be consistent
When I talk with other founders about scaling, they often mention “pace” and “innovation,” but rarely emphasize the quiet power of steady execution.
Sure, we all want to move fast, but real growth is less about a sprint and more about picking a direction and sticking with it long enough to refine your approach.
In the Harvard Business Review, Gary Pisano warns that chasing hyper-growth at all costs can destroy the very capabilities that made you successful in the first place.
Consistency, on the other hand, builds trust with customers, employees, and investors alike.
And it’s not just about internal processes.
A recent Bain & Company review of “insurgent” consumer brands found that disciplined focus on unmet needs, plus a tight product lineup, let these small players capture outsize market share. That means they didn’t pivot strategy every two weeks or let distractions derail them.
They picked a path, nailed it, and refined from there.
In my own work, consistency extends from how often I release updates to how I communicate the vision to my team.
Even scheduling deep-work mornings instead of winging it has made me more reliable — both to myself and to the people who depend on me. However, you implement it, consistency brings stability to all the bold moves you’re making.
Final thoughts
I sometimes think back to my late-night hustle phase, the one that nearly torpedoed my health.
Sure, I was “testing” everything, but I had zero consistency in how I nurtured my own energy or approached each experiment.
The real turning point came when I realized that growth—both in business and in life—relies on well-chosen strategies, fueled by steady execution.
If you’re itching to expand what you’re doing, pick one of these eight areas and put it to the test.
Maybe you’ll open up a new partnership. Or maybe you’ll refine an existing product to serve your market better.
Whatever you decide, track it like you’d track any experiment, and iterate when the data tells you to change course.
That’s how you stay in the game and evolve, one strategic move (and one deep-work morning) at a time.
