"Guys, Let's Grow The Hell Out Of This Company": How Y Combinator Startups Go Big

The startup factory's philosophy can be summed up simply: Grow fast! A look at how startups figure out what that means.

Liz Wessel has a number in mind: a jaw-dropping digit that she believes will be significant enough to convince even the most skeptical audience that she's onto something big. The Number looms over every decision she has made over the past six weeks and every decision she will make between now and Y Combinator's Demo Day in March, when she'll present the company to a room full of venture capitalists and reporters. This isn't because of what The Number literally represents—a daily tally of employment applications processed by her recruiting startup, Campus Job—but because of what it says about her company: rocketship growth.

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