Growth is Optional: Why Relentless Experimentation Wins
- Mohammed Malki
- May 16
- 3 min read
Updated: May 16
"If you can run more experiments than the next guy, if you can be hungry for growth, if you can fight and die for every extra user and you stay up late at night to get those extra users, to run those experiments, to get the data, and do it over and over and over again, you will grow faster. Mark (Zuckerberg) has said he thinks we won because we wanted it more, and I really believe that. We just worked really hard. It’s not like we’re crazy smart, or we’ve all done these crazy things before. We just worked really really hard, and we executed fast. I strongly encourage you to do that. Growth is optional." - Alex Schultz, VP of Analytics & CMO @ Meta
I revisit this lecture from time to time because it reminds me of the mentality of fighting for one's success, and to me, it applies to almost everything.
I also want to highlight what Alex said about the cycle of consistent experimentation and fast execution to get that extra user no matter what the cost was.
Schultz wasn’t talking about building perfect strategies or hiring unicorn talent. He was talking about grit. About obsessing over that next user, that next feature test, that next iteration — until the compounding advantage kicks in.
I believe that with this type of mentality, growth is almost certain.
Why Some Startups Break Through Faster
It’s not always about having the best idea or the most funding — it often comes down to momentum.
The teams that break through are the ones who stay curious. They don’t wait for perfect conditions.
They validate quickly, launch fast, and treat every iteration as a chance to learn something new.
Instead of chasing perfection, they build feedback loops.
Instead of overthinking, they experiment.
And over time, those small, fast moves stack up — into real traction, real users, and real growth.
Speed > Perfection
Running more experiments than the next startup doesn’t mean chaos — it means tight loops:
Ship, measure, tweak.
Push early versions to small audiences.
Kill what doesn't convert.
Build a distribution engine while refining your product.
In the early days, it's not about elegance — it’s about feedback loops. Startups that move faster learn faster, and learning is what drives survival.
Those are the days that you will take pride in and remember fondly..
Ambition..
“But what is ambition, exactly? To me, it's a leap of faith. A belief in the possibility of success without all the evidence to justify it a priori. A trust that whatever challenges we'll face between here and there, we'll be able to figure them out. It's a confidence in the strength of human ingenuity. And a bet that it takes a goal just beyond the reach of the plausible to get the best out of us all.” - David Heinemeier Hansson
Every early-stage startup is a leap of faith. There’s no full data set, no certainty, no guaranteed playbook.
Your edge is how fast you can test your assumptions — and how little ego you attach to being wrong.
Because wrong today just means you’re less wrong tomorrow. And eventually, you’re the one others are chasing.
Share often.. Share early.
Growth is Optional — But Learnings Compound
If you treat speed, experimentation, and user obsession as non-negotiable, growth becomes a byproduct.
Not because you predicted everything perfectly, but because you showed up, ran the test, got the result, and repeated the process faster than anyone else.
That’s what Alex meant.
That’s how Meta/Facebook scaled.
That’s how great startups become great.
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