A Growth Philosophy
Become A
Scrappy Giant.
Think like a startup. Scale like an empire. The brands that win combine the relentless creativity of day one with the firepower to make it count.
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Success is the enemy of the
instincts that created it.
When you’re scrappy, every opportunity matters. You obsess over details. You show up personally. You make things by hand because you have to—and because you care.
Then you grow. Budget appears. Headcount expands. And slowly, imperceptibly, you start treating opportunities like checkboxes. You resize ads instead of reimagining them. You pay for reach instead of earning attention.
The giant forgets what made them dangerous in the first place.
Three ways to grow
Most brands operate at one of two extremes. The opportunity lives in the synthesis.
The Scrappy Business
All hustle, limited resources. Every move is intentional because it has to be. High creativity, constrained reach.
- Founder shows up personally
- Obsesses over every detail
- Earns attention through craft
- Resource-constrained by necessity
- Can’t scale what’s working
The Giant Business
Big budget, checkbox mentality. Opportunities become line items. High reach, diminishing returns.
- Delegates everything
- Treats wins as expected
- Buys attention through spend
- Resizes instead of reimagines
- Loses the founder’s instinct
The Scrappy Giant
Giant’s resources, startup’s hunger. Treats every opportunity like survival depends on it—because the best ones do.
- Invests attention AND budget
- Obsesses at scale
- Earns then amplifies
- Native creative, scaled distribution
- Founder energy, enterprise reach
The difference in practice
Same channels, radically different execution. Here’s how each approach plays out across key growth levers.
| Channel | Scrappy Business | Giant Business | Scrappy Giant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comment daily, earn trust through genuine community participation | Run generic display ads, treat it like any other platform | Build community presence + run bespoke, native paid ads | |
| AMA | Founder shows up live, answers everything personally | Polished PR responses, limited access, feels corporate | Real experts + promotional strategy to reach target subscribers |
| Kickstarter | Obsess over page design + send thoughtful backer updates | “Nice to have” launch, minimal optimization effort | A+ page quality + paid retargeting to maximize momentum |
| TV Feature | Hope the traffic converts on the existing site | Treat as a checkbox, don’t build infrastructure | Custom landing page + email flows + inventory prep |
| Influencers | DM micro-creators, negotiate barter deals manually | Big names, big spend, little tracking or optimization | Micro + macro mix with rigorous CAC + lift measurement |
| Creative | Make native content for each channel by hand | Resize existing ads, ship across all channels | Native creative per platform + rapid scaling of winners |
Case Study
The same Good Morning America segment.
Two completely different outcomes.
We’ve seen both sides of this story firsthand. One brand we worked with left money on the table. Another brand we helped build captured every dollar.
Checkbox Mentality
Got the GMA Steals & Deals feature. Added it to the to-do list. Ran it. Moved on. The traffic came and went. Nobody knows what happened with it.
Hundreds of Thousands in Sales
Same segment, different mindset. Built dedicated landing pages. Created email flows. Redesigned the site for message continuity. Captured every ounce of that exposure.