Why Growth is More Like a Wheel Than a Funnel

We all need mental models—but they need to be reasonable ones.

Take growth, for example. If you think about your company’s growth phases as a funnel, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

Why? Because growth is never linear. A more accurate mental picture for me is a wacky wheel. When it rolls smoothly, you go fast! But when you hit a bump—or the wheel suddenly deflates—you need to pause, reassess, and adjust. Otherwise, you’ll simply stop.

Here are a few bumps I’ve encountered on growth journeys:

• Finding market fit but hitting a wall: Trouble can come from differentiating too soon, doubling down without a clear strategy, or having a product that doesn’t scale as much as you hoped for.

• Chasing growth and losing sight of your core: Growth is like pizza—once you taste it, you want more. However chasing growth can make you lose focus on what made your product great in the first place. It’s like adding pineapple to pizza—why?!

• Scaling isn’t the same as starting: What got you from 0 to 1 won’t take you from 1 to 100. Scaling requires a whole new gear—and letting go of what worked before.

• Breaking through a plateau: When your product becomes the growth engine, how do you keep going? You might need to revisit your core (without losing your value proposition) or expand your portfolio, starting the wheel turning again from market fit.

Growth isn’t a funnel. It’s a wacky wheel—bumpy, unpredictable, and anything but linear. And sometimes, it’s not just about rolling forward—it’s about rethinking the wheel to keep moving.