“Scaling” Isn’t a Strategy — It’s a Side Effect

Everyone says they want to “scale.”

But ask what exactly? — and the room goes quiet.

At noma labs, we’ve seen this word used like confetti.

“Scaling” followers. “Scaling” content. “Scaling” revenue.

But scaling isn’t a plan — it’s what happens after one.

You don’t scale chaos.

You multiply it.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

Most businesses don’t need to “scale.”

They need to get their unit economics, operations, and offer clarity in order first.

Because scaling something broken just makes it break faster.

We once had a founder tell us,

“We’re ready to scale — we just need more leads.” Translation: “We’re losing money per sale, and would love to lose it faster.”

Scaling should be a symptom of systems that already work — not the shortcut to make them work.

The real strategy?

Build something worth scaling.

Then make sure it’s so good, it starts scaling itself.