The Underdog’s Scale Up Models Cheat Sheet

Smart Growth Models for Founders Who Build, Adapt, and Refuse to Play Small

While the startup world loves to shout about “go big or go home,” some of the most successful founders took a different route — one that fit their business, their timing, and their values.

In this cheat sheet, we break down 9 practical growth models — the kind used by some of the most relevant, resilient, and successful companies today to grow sustainably and strategically.

Whether you’re bootstrapped, backed, or somewhere in between, these models will help you scale on your own terms — and stay in control while you do it.

1. LEAN SCALING

You can’t talk about scaling startups without talking about lean.

The concept of Lean was originally born on Toyota’s factory floors — all about cutting waste, staying efficient, and improving as you go. Eric Ries took those principles and brought them to the startup world. His book The Lean Startup (2011) introduced now-familiar ideas like MVPs, build-measure-learn cycles, and treating startups as experiments in motion. Key Principles:

• Build the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)—the simplest version people can use.

• Test directly with customers to learn what works and what flops.

• Measure what matters: customer actions, not compliments.

• Keep iterating—pivot fast if the market says you’re wrong.

  
  
  
  

When to Use: Testing new ideas, especially with limited resources.

2. BLITZSCALING

Blitzscaling — a term coined by Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn) and Chris Yeh (co-founder of the Global Scaling Academy) — is all about prioritizing speed over efficiency to win massive markets. It’s how companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Airbnb grew fast enough to outpace competitors and dominate their industries. The strategy was fully unpacked in their 2018 book, Blitzscaling.

Key Principles:

• Ignore efficiency temporarily—focus on speed to capture the market first.

• Tolerate chaos, outgrow competitors while they’re still thinking.

• Raise and burn cash fast—but with a plan to lock the market.

When to Use: Big markets where being the first-mover means owning the category. Airbnb scaled globally in a few years, often outpacing regulation.

3. FLYWHEEL Popularized by Jim Collins in Good to Great (2001). Jim observed that great companies build momentum gradually—like pushing a heavy flywheel until it spins on its own. Key Principles:

• Keep pushing your core growth activities until momentum kicks in.

• Repeat what works: customer experience → referrals → better deals → reinvest profits.

• Growth compounds—small wins pile up into a big, unstoppable flywheel.

When to Use: Long-term, scalable businesses with steady growth potential.

4. NETWORK EFFECTS

   First formalized by Robert Metcalfe in the 1980s (Metcalfe’s Law) Robert Metcalfe (Ethernet inventor) explained that a network’s value increases as the number of users grows. Modern venture firm NFX expanded the concept for digital startups. Data Network Effects emerged from companies like Google, Netflix, and TikTok, showing how user data itself makes the product smarter and better over time.

   Key Principles:

• Every new user adds value—either directly (more people to connect with) or indirectly (more data to improve the product).

• Creates a defensible moat—the bigger the network, the harder it is for competitors to catch up.

• Data feedback loops kick in: as usage grows, the product personalizes, optimizes, and improves automatically.

When to Use: Platforms, marketplaces, social networks, AI-driven products, or any business where scale improves the core product.

5. VIRAL GROWTH LOOPS

Refined by the original growth hackers at Hotmail, PayPal, and Dropbox, this model turns your users into your marketing engine.

Hotmail kickstarted it all with a simple tagline — “Get your free email at Hotmail” — added to every outgoing message. PayPal offered cash incentives for referrals. Dropbox took it further by gamifying the process — giving users extra storage for every friend they brought in. The result? Rapid, compounding growth — driven by the product itself.

Key Principles:

• Make sharing or inviting built-in, not optional.

• Reward users for bringing others—free credits, features, or status.

• The loop fuels itself—users recruit more users automatically.
  

When to Use: Products that are useful, shareable, or solve social problems.

6. PLATFORM SCALING (TWO-SIDED MARKETS) Rooted in platform economics, researched in the 2000s by scholars like Geoffrey Parker & Marshall Van Alstyne. They studied how platforms grow by balancing producers (supply) and consumers (demand).

Key Principles:    Growth depends on keeping both sides happy.

Losing balance causes platform failure.

When to Use:  Marketplaces, gig platforms, SaaS connecting two groups.

7. FREEMIUM TO PREMIUM Perfected by SaaS giants like LinkedIn, Spotify, and Evernote, this model works on a simple idea: free users drive viral growth, while premium users keep the lights on. It’s a balancing act between scale and revenue — give enough away to grow fast but offer enough value to make upgrading worth it.

   

   Key Principles: • Offer real value in the free tier—don’t just tease.

   • Create clear, compelling upgrades that make premium a no-brainer.

   • Free users become a built-in marketing channel for premium conversions. When to Use: Digital products or services where paying unlocks powerful features or experience.

8. ECOSYSTEM PLAY

   Popularized by Big Tech giants like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft, the Ecosystem Play is all about building a world users never want (or need) to leave. By tightly integrating their products and services, these companies create seamless experiences — and keep users (and their spending) inside the ecosystem.

Key Principles:

• Each product adds value to the others.

• Switching costs get exponentially higher as users invest more.

When to Use: When expanding product lines or services.

9. COMMUNITY-LED GROWTH

   Community-Led Growth finds its roots in modern brands like Notion, Figma, and HubSpot—pioneers who transformed their users into advocates. By fostering genuine, value-driven communities, they created ecosystems where users support each other, fuel product adoption, and deepen brand loyalty organically.

   
   

Key Principles:

• Your users don’t just use the product—they support it, build on it, and market it for you.

• Communities drive product feedback, support, and growth.

When to Use: Products that attract power users or creators.

QUICK USAGE GUIDE

✅ Lean Scaling → Validate ideas cheaply. ✅ Blitzscaling → Win fast if market rewards speed. ✅ Flywheel → Compound growth for the long haul.

✅ Network Effects → Build defensibility as you scale.

✅ Viral Loops → Turn users into your best marketers.

✅ Platform Scaling → Marketplaces connecting two sides.

✅ Freemium → Attract free users, convert power users.

✅ Ecosystem → Expand product range, increase loyalty.

✅ Community-Led → Let your users build your brand.

GROWTH THAT FITS YOU

You don’t have to pick just one. Many great companies combine models—starting with lean, layering in content or community, and switching to product- or sales-led as they grow. Zoom scaled by combining a lean MVP with a freemium model. They layered in ecosystem integrations—then blitzscaled when the moment hit.

Smart founders sequence their growth, stay adaptable, and play the long game.

Pick the model that fits now, and evolve as you grow.