Why Scale a Startup? (Coursera)

After taking this course, you will be able to: identify the key challenges to scaling up and list possible solutions to these problems; discuss the differences between growing and scaling; offer tips on how to make your company weatherproof (identify risk and offer strategies to mitigate these risks); and explain common best practices for scaling up effectively and efficiently. This course brings together practical advice, real-life examples, and big-picture insights from well-known companies and experts in the field so you can see what has worked for other companies and develop a "toolbox" of scaling solutions.

Make your scaleup journey as smooth and surprise-free as possible - with this course, you´ll know the types of issues that arise in most scaleups and learn how to solve them.

This course is part of the Scale Up Your Startup Specialization

Syllabus

Scaling a Startup

In this module, we will take a high-level look at the place of scaling and scaleups within entrepreneurship and innovation and begin to formulate how scaleups and startups differ.

What is a Scaleup?

What makes a scaleup different than a startup? What questions should you be asking yourself before you start to scale up? And does startup type determine scaleup strategy? These are a few of the key questions we will address in this module.

Scaling Fast vs. Scaling Slow: The Role of Risk

Is scaling a sprint or a marathon? That depends on your view on risk, your industry insight, and how weatherproof your company can be - all of which we will cover in this module.

Exponential Growth

We hear a lot about exponentiality, but what does it actually mean? In this module, we will establish the key differences between growth (which is linear) and scaling (which is exponential), looking at examples from successful companies to further illustrate this difference as we prepare to scale up.