More Isn’t Always Better: The Hidden Paradox of Growth

The paradox of growth is that you don’t have to expand to achieve it.

Too many businesses, after reaching market fit, rush to expand, broadening their market, product portfolio, or customer needs they address in an effort to sustain growth. If your instinct after market fit is to expand, my advice is to think again.

Here’s why: the real secret to growth is doing one thing exceptionally well, and mastery is not doing many things, it takes focus.

Yet, I’ve seen many scale-ups chase the “super app” dream, only to dilute their value. 

Think about it: how many companies have successfully expanded beyond their core product? You can count them on one hand. Amazon with AWS is one example, but that came after years of investments in the core business. And as a consequence of the company investing in its own infrastructure to support its core product.

The most valuable asset for your product is its value association, the immediate, top-of-mind recognition when a customer needs to solve a specific problem. If you have that, it’s a golden opportunity to deepen and refine, not to spread thin.

Instead of chasing growth through expansion, consider this: strong brands and strong products are built on clear, memorable associations. If people can’t articulate what you do best, trying to do 100 things won’t make them remember you. Even worse, if people could make that association about your product, but then you get distracted chasing expansion and new needs, you’ll lose the association. And probably with it your market-fit.

I know this works because I’ve done it—multiple times.

Most recently at Hemnet, where we 4x’d revenue in six years by focusing on deepening the core value proposition rather than expanding beyond it.

We started by offering multiple ways to solve the same core problem (buying and selling homes). Then, we doubled down on value creation, monetizing the impact on sellers' return on investment. Growth didn’t come from chasing new markets or clients, it came from refining the business model, optimizing incentives in the distribution channels, and aligning everything to amplify our core strength.

How we identified different opportunities to grow the core business at Hemnet

If you’re solving a real problem, there’s often more untapped growth within your core than outside of it.

So my tip to you is: before expanding, explore:

• Your core audience’s problem – How can you go deeper and solve it even better? Starting from the user journey, you’ll find more opportunities than you imagine.

• Your business model – Is it scalable and optimized for growth? Can small tweaks unlock your traction?

• Incentive alignment – Are your incentives aligned with customers and GTM functions to fuel adoption?

• Your distribution channels – Are you visible at the right touchpoints for your ideal customers?

I’ve seen businesses quadruple revenues and reach profitability by delivering an excellent core product—and others nearly lose market fit by chasing expansion too soon.

Sustainable growth isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing what you do best…better. Master your core first, and growth will follow.