Advice from the High Growth Handbook, a Guide to Scaling Startups

Gil says the handbook offers broadly useful guidance on hiring, product management, M&A, and communications, while focusing on companies going through high growth. He included interviews with people whose advice sometimes differed from his because startup decisions depend on the circumstances.

Gil argues that pricing power can support growth by giving a company more margin to hire, sell, or acquire customers. He says founders should examine market structure rather than assume network effects create a winner-take-all market; he cites U.S. education as difficult partly because it often lacks a clear payer. For employees evaluating a company, he points to customer adoption, the people joining it, and fundraising as possible breakout signals.

Gil praises Stripe executive Claire Hughes Johnson’s letter explaining how colleagues can work with her, calling it a useful onboarding practice for leaders. He says hiring plans should connect product priorities, headcount, timing, and fundraising needs, and that founders should be willing to wait for the right hires or let poor fits go. He recommends considering regulation early, while keeping it from displacing core product work before launch.

Gil says the first customers may come through hands-on recruiting, as with Stripe’s Collison install, or through a product that spreads among users. Enterprise founders can work with design partners to shape the product. He argues that companies often need aggressive distribution: Google paid for prominent placement and toolbar bundling, while Facebook used tactics to acquire users.

Gil ranks strong traction as the most compelling reason to fund a startup, followed by an attractive market, a strong team, and a compelling story. He also says venture capital is not the only route: customers, profitability, or upfront engineering fees can fund a business. For early products, he advises delighting a small group of customers while experimenting, with greater caution when failure could cause physical harm.