A dichotomy has existed for tech companies in the modern zeitgeist of entrepreneurship: "venture scale" vs. "lifestyle business".
Venture-Scale: Entrepreneurs are supposed to embrace the grind and the hustle to accomplish everything it takes to grow the company at all costs. Only through blood, sweat and tears will you be able to succeed. Anything less is failure.
Lifestyle Business: Why have work-life balance? That’s for chumps. You’ll never be successful working less than 12 hour days and the weekends. You can’t do that? Boo-hoo!
I’m afraid this language was written by those who are incentivized to profit off of the humans who have put in the effort to start their own companies from scratch. “Lifestyle business” might even be tame. If it were up to them, they might even call it something directly insulting instead of resorting to backhanded remarks (1).
We’re starting to see a shift over the last 12 months to favor profitable companies instead of "growth at all costs". Everyone was a winner in a bull market, but bear markets expose businesses that aren’t built to last. What worked in 2013 won’t work in 2023.
With this shift, it’s time for entrepreneurs to reclaim the language bestowed from those who have profited off of us: embrace the "lifescale business".
You can accomplish everything you need to create a business that grows within the 40 hours of a normal work week (2). Prioritize building a profitable company first, otherwise you risk the fate of so many startups who were funded in the 2010’s. Your mental health and loved ones will thank you later.
Scale your life so that you can derive meaning from something that you’re passionate about. Scale your life by helping others solve a substantial problem in their lives. Scale your life so you can find the satisfaction from building something from the ground up. Scale your life so you can live comfortably and enjoy whatever brings you joy in the world. Scale your life so your future generations have a better headstart than you did.
Don’t scale other people’s lives at the expense of your own.