The True Reason Behind Growth | Original
Around 2017, when I was doing my startup, after getting investment, I hired 9 employees but had to let them go after two months. It became one of my most difficult lessons: not having a long-term plan, wanting to impress others, and trying too quickly to develop my management skills. The good news is that by working with part-time engineers on 50 small software projects, we earned half a million and returned it to the investor when shutting down the company.
Later in my career, I joined a digital bank project in a major Asian financial hub. Launched in the mid-2010s, its app grew to 3 million users by the end of 2022. Encouraged by this growth, management hired aggressively—bringing in engineers, support staff, and contractors across multiple offices.
But within a year, user numbers barely increased, and many of the new hires were let go. These figures are approximate, shared to highlight the deeper reasons behind growth.
In my previous essay On Big Companies, I wrote below.
One contributing factor to this outcome is the cumbersome and numerous processes within large companies. Engineers who had been with the company for six months to a year were unable to make significant contributions. The timeline typically included two months to grasp the basics, three months to become acquainted with the projects, three months navigating through tedious procedures or testing, and finally, two months of productive work that impacted users.
Why did this happen? It’s easy to assume that hard work alone drives growth, but success also depends on users and the market. Their early bet on digital banking was right, and the app became a top choice. But growth slowed due to regional limits, such as requiring a local phone number.
Some payment apps don’t require a specific phone number, which is helpful. Nearby regions have large populations that could contribute users. Cross-border payment systems, like Payment Connect, help transfer money across regions, boosting usage. For internet apps, serving all users without restrictions is ideal. Services like SMS Activate let you rent numbers to bypass such limits.
Managers also needed to report to top executives to secure a larger budget. But why did executives believe expansion was the right decision? Banking leadership often couldn’t foresee the impact of AI or were overly cautious about data security.
Few people in the world can predict the future accurately. And few can avoid missteps—especially when running a company and dealing with complex challenges across countries.
Apps like Grok and Mistral can be used in many regions, which is positive. Why should people face internet restrictions due to local laws? Many don’t support such laws, and yet they still feel the effects.
The reason I grew to around 20,000 users in a year was that I caught a trend—at that time, in China, there was a need for a platform for knowledge workers. Jike Time from GeekBang, Dedao, and Himalaya showed that demand. I worked hard on software engineering and marketing, mostly by myself, often through WeChat. But in the end, users only care about what the product brings them. They don’t care if it’s made by one person or twenty. Founders, managers, or investors care—users don’t.
We need to try many approaches and test them. That way, we learn what works. It’s natural to make mistakes, but repeating them is unwise. For user growth, there are many paths—online, offline, through active outreach, or by slow discovery. People hear about things days, months, or even years later.
Not only should we reason about growth, we should try to understand the reasons for everything. Why do relationships falter? Why doesn’t code work? If we don’t adjust, problems persist. Why do others appreciate us? What did we do right?
My English became an advantage in China, helping me secure contractor roles at international banks. We should invest in what works to make life easier. By understanding the reasons behind challenges, we can avoid them and grow wiser.