Can your company live long and prosper? 

These are examples of companies that built new S-curves on purpose. And you can and should follow those examples, even if you’re not the same size as they are. 

The S-curve describes the life stages of every business and product. When we start businesses, we experience a downward turn of the curve where we’re searching for product-market fit. We’re investing money and time without certainty of a good return. Once you land on a winning business model, you begin to move up and to the right. That’s the beautiful part. 

We like to think it will go on forever, but as the German proverb says, “Trees don’t grow to the sky.” There’s a natural limit to the growth of your business. At some point your business model, product or service will become obsolete, and the S-curve begins the descent.

Once profits start that dip, it’s usually too late. This is why you are wise to commit to innovation and entrepreneurship early on. You need to start building a new S-curve before the old one goes away. 

That’s certainly risky, but I teach a process that will help you assess new ventures. I call it POP!—How good are the people? How good is the opportunity? How good is the proof?

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