Early stage companies don’t become successful because of the perfection of their products. They become successful because the founders and early team make them successful. That means giving early users a remarkable experience, even before you have the tech to do it.
To accomplish that, you’re probably going to need to do things that don’t scale. “Do things that don’t scale” means giving your early users an experience that you would never expect to provide once you have 1,000 or more customers.
Make it easy to go fast, learn, and be amazing for your customers. If that means doing things manually, then do it.
Resources about this idea:
Here is Paul Graham’s classic essay: Do Things That Don’t Scale.
Here he is talking about it:
From the Founder Toolkit, here are examples of successful founders doing things that don’t scale: