Start to Scale: Secrets to Starting and Scaling Any Size Organization

by Verne Harnish

Proven tools and strategies to achieve sustainable growth

Leaders across industries have used the techniques provided in this book to start and scale businesses from day one through a $1 billion valuation―and these success stories are just the beginning of what you’ll learn.

Written by Verne Harnish, founder of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and Global Scaleup Fellow in The Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH), this book distills four decades of experience honed through an executive program he founded with MIT and still teaches today.

Start to Scale focuses on four critical decisions every company must get

Attract and retain A-players organized in a team of teams structure
Create a customer-focused plan that crushes the competition
Master what it takes to get relentless repeatability, key to the brand
Supercharge your cash flow to fuel long-term growth

You’ll also gain access to a set of one-page tools including the One-Page Strategic Plan (OPSP) to align your organization; initiate effective meeting rhythms to drive accountability; and establish practical ways to gather and act on customer and employee intel. Whether you’re launching a startup or scaling an established company, Start to Scale provides the roadmap.

Genres: Business

216 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 10, 2025

Reviews

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't Lite, which can make sense. It's the core stuff without the extensive examples or the many references to other books and articles. If you've already read Scaling Up...you won't really get much out of this book. If you haven't read the main book...you can read this, but you'll still need the main book to properly make sense of things. So this new book sits in a very weird place.

[Píaras Cíonnaoíth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Entrepreneur’s Playbook for Sustainable Success...

Verne Harnish's Start to Scale is a masterclass in transforming young enterprises into industry powerhouses. Drawing on 40 years of experience and insights gained through Harvard and MIT collaborations, the author simplifies growth into four pillars: nurturing elite teams, developing customer-centric strategies, executing with precision, and maximizing cash flow. This guide provides executives with effective frameworks such as the One-Page Strategic Plan and data-driven meeting cycles to help teams align and make faster decisions. Whether developing a startup or reinvigorating an established company, Start to Scale provides practical techniques for gathering feedback and maintaining momentum. A must-read for everyone who wants to transform ambition into scalable, repeatable success. Highly recommended.

[Tara Dodson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully formatted

I appreciated the cut and dry aspect of this book and the way its formatted to key strategies. Only the key strategies for the chapters that assist the business minds and leaders make up the text. So there's no fluff.

[Simon Kearney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Turned my approach to management around and the business with it. Highly recommend