From Impossible To Inevitable: How Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue by Jason Lemkin, Aaron Ross

The idea of hypergrowth companies are often seen as being nearly impossible to achieve. However, in the book ‘From Impossible To Inevitable: How Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue’, author Jason Lemkin, a former CFO and venture capitalist that has helped nurture companies such as Evernote, Box, and Yammer, share how hypergrowth can become the norm for a company’s trajectory rather than an outlier.

In the book, Lemkin meticulously outlines the keys to success for ambitious, successful startups and shows companies the roadmap they need to become the next big unicorn. Through performance metrics, tactical and strategic approaches, Lemkin helps to create a framework for success by combining both high-growth and steady growth.

The core message of ‘From Impossible To Inevitable’ is that hypergrowth companies must embrace change early and often, andcompanies must know where and when to invest to achieve a target level of growth and create an environment that can easily pivot when necessary. Lemkin specifically shows how to scale a business across different dimensions, from small startups to larger, established organizations. While Lemkin's advice is focused on the tech industry, his tips on scalability and growth will help any type of company.

At the core of Lemkin's book is the concept of customer lifetime value (CLV). Lemkin details how to create a plan that puts CLV as the central focus of a company's growth strategy. This includes creating a personal ecosystem so that customers can get exactly what they need when they need it, and creating a customer-focused marketing plan to drive growth.

Lemkin also outlines the importance of creating a viral-pyramid effect in order to increase customer acquisitions and create an ever-growing customer base. Specifically, Lemkin encourages companies to use their existing customer base as an avenue for growth. For instance, he suggests offering existing customers referral bonuses or discounts, so they incentivize friends and family members to join the customer base.

Lemkin also delves into the importance of finding a spot in the industry that your business uniquely fits. Whether it’s through a certain technology, value proposition, or use of customer data, Lemkin encourages companies to find their niche and focus their efforts there. This also involves making sure that company culture and marketing efforts line up with the company’s focus.

Throughout ‘From Impossible to Inevitable’ Lemkin emphasizes the importance of sales and customer service. He explains the importance of the CFO’s focus on customer service, sales, and marketing, and provides detailed procedures for analyzing sales and customer metrics to ensure that the customer journey is creating the maximum lifetime value. He also explains how to effectively utilize customer feedback to create a better service.

Finally, Lemkin outlines the benefits of using metrics to track company performance and improve customer success. He makes sure to emphasize that metrics should be an avenue for learning and adapting, not a rigid way to measure success. Through this, companies are able to use their data more effectively to focus on customer loyalty and increased customer lifetime value.

In ‘From Impossible to Inevitable’, Lemkin provides a comprehensive roadmap for hypergrowth companies. He gives CEOs a plan to create an ethos of hypergrowth, focusing on customer value and use of metrics to track customer success. By applying his ideas, companies can graduate from small startups to well-known and influential companies. The goal of this book is to make hypergrowth a name synonymous with success and make the idea of the impossible becoming inevitable a reality.