Start Tiny, Dominate, Then Expand Concentrically

"This book’s intelligent fanatic CEOs first dominated a small market and then grew into larger markets. Another cause of failure among growing companies is simply growing too quickly, which can stretch a company’s capabilities, balance sheet, and/or culture too thin."

"Intelligent fanatic CEOs create a well-oiled machine before pushing the accelerator to the floor."

"The owners start by developing a dream to be the best at one simple thing. From those dreams, difficult but achievable goals can be established."

"Any business with a large potential size is best served if cash is reinvested back into the business. That way, one dollar is much more likely to be turned into many more dollars in the future. In all but one of our case studies, a majority of cash was reinvested back into the business for future growth. However, intelligent fanatics do not grow for growth’s sake. They reinvest for market domination and much higher profitability in the future."

"Start Small and Monopolize Every startup is small at the start. Every monopoly dominates a large share of its market. Therefore, every startup should start with a very small market. Always err on the side of starting too small. The reason is simple: it’s easier to dominate a small market than a large one. If you think your initial market might be too big, it almost certainly is."

"Paradoxically, then, network effects businesses must start with especially small markets."

"The perfect target market for a startup is a small group of particular people concentrated together and served by few or no competitors. Any big market is a bad choice, and a big market already served by competing companies is even worse."

"Scaling Up Once you create and dominate a niche market, then you should gradually expand into related and slightly broader markets."