Do Things That Don't Scale' Is Not Valid Anymore
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Every customer’s data systems and requirements are different. You can build a consulting company that way, but not a scalable product company.
Believe it or not, this comes from my own experience.
The author argues that 'doing things that don't scale' is no longer valid for enterprise B2B startups, sparking debate among commenters about the role of early customer relationships in building a scalable product company.
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- 01Story posted
Nov 11, 2025 at 3:06 PM EST
about 2 months ago
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Nov 11, 2025 at 3:15 PM EST
9m after posting
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2 comments in 0-2h
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Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Nov 12, 2025 at 2:40 PM EST
about 2 months ago
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a scalable product company
If you're building a scalable product company your first customers are your best evangelists. They're the ones you need to cultivate and nurture to take your message to a wide audience. Wider than you can connect with without them on side. That's why you have to do things at the start like emailing and talking with them personally. You can't do that when you have 1,000 customers, but you need to do that when you have 3.
Did PG say to do that?
You are on YC and appear to be disagreeing with PG's "Do Things that Don't Scale" article: https://paulgraham.com/ds.html so people jump to conclusions even if you don't.