Entrepreneurial growth: Scaling ventures for long-term success

For high-potential start-ups, one of the biggest challenges is deciding how to grow. The course Entrepreneurial Growth provides tools and insights to help you scale ventures in fast-changing marketplaces. Drawing on strategy, history, entrepreneurial finance, and organizational behavior, students will examine critical dilemmas that span the lifecycle of entrepreneurial ventures. Focusing on companies that have already achieved product-market fit and are ready for scale and impact, we explore how to unite people for growth, involve investors without losing control over mission, use financial planning tools to organize different resource providers, and evaluate exit dilemmas. We discuss the “fit” of different scaling strategies with their institutional and cultural environment, challenging the idea of a one-size-fits-all ideal. Rather than promoting growth at all cost, we debate scaling strategies that prioritize local embeddedness and long-term success.