My Secret Growth Hack

Before my startup launched a single product, I made an unlikely play to buy another company. That bet is still paying off today.

- By Lauren Schulte Wang

I bought a competitor.

That isn’t unique, of course, but here’s what is: At the time, my company was 6 months old and had failed to manufacture anything. The acquisition would cost us almost every dollar we had.

You don’t see this move in the traditional startup playbook. It sounded insane; I was at risk of losing both businesses. But it became exactly the jump-start my company needed. That taught me something: Throw away the playbook! Sometimes a small company needs to act like a big one.

To be clear, I did not come from a fancy M&A or finance background. I previously worked in marketing.