Escape Velocity

If you are in the tech industry, you’ve heard the need to achieve ‘Escape Velocity’ probably more times than you can remember.? However, do you actually know what it is?? Well you came to the right article!? (You should probably not use this term in your pitch until you fully understand it.)

Notice as we describe Escape Velocity, I think you will find there are several elements which make the correlation between this concept and the startup journey even more interesting than the surface conversation we’ve all heard.

Physics:? In celestial mechanics, escape velocity or escape speed is the minimum speed needed for an object to escape from contact with or orbit of a primary body.?

Business: This makes sense as you build your growth strategy - achieve fast enough growth in revenue and reach your goals - raising the next round, becoming profitable, or going public!?

Physics: ?If an object is launched with less than the escape velocity, the planet's gravitational pull will eventually pull it back to Earth. However, if the object is given a continuous force, it can achieve any velocity.? According to Newton's laws of motion, if an object is given a continuous force, its velocity will continuously increase, meaning it can theoretically achieve any velocity as long as the force is applied for a sufficient amount of time, with no external factors like friction significantly hindering its acceleration.

Business: If you fail to achieve your revenue or growth objectives, you will not reach your funding or profitability goal, and have to try again. Basic, got it.?

But it is interesting to note, that if you utilize continuous force, you can eventually get to that speed you need to achieve your goal. In other words, it does not need to be a business growth explosion popularized as the only way, but it can be an acceleration over time.? In other words, Persistence matters - physics says so.

Physics: A rocket under continuous or intermittent thrust (or an object climbing a space elevator) can attain escape at any non-zero speed, but the minimum amount of energy required to do so is always the same.?

Business: ?In other words, use our explosion idea, vs. a longer push, you will need the same amount of energy for your business to get there. There is no cheat card here.

Physics:? Escape velocity on earth is 25,025 MPH.? So if you move 25,026 MPH, you will leave the earth’s gravity. On the moon, escape velocity is 5,369 MPH, on the Sun it is 1.41M MPH!? Solar system escape velocity(from Earth) is 94,176 MPH. Travel this fast, and you will exit the solar system.

Business: ?You should just KNOW this fact if you use this term.? 25,020 MPH on earth. The others are just to show off.

Physics: Escape velocity is independent of direction. It only depends on the mass and radius of the body you are trying to escape from.? While gravity acts in a specific direction towards the center of a mass, the calculation for escape velocity only considers the magnitude of that force, which is the same in any direction at a given distance.

Business: This one is harder to rationalize.? If a business is moving fast but going in the wrong direction, it will likely NOT achieve Escape Velocity, so starting a company is in this case harder than the physics of Escape Velocity because in business, direction MATTERS!

Additional note: The opposing force to Escape Velocity is gravity. The gravitational constant or ‘G’ is the same everywhere in the universe, and is influenced by mass and radius of the celestial body.. (Friction does factor in reality as well)

In business the opposing forces are much more complicated.? The factors influencing your ability to achieve Escape Velocity are many - People, funding, execution, technical feasibility, economic conditions, and perhaps luck.

So, HOW might a young company actually achieve their own version of 'Escape Velocity'? At DocuSign it was a combination of things that finally lined up. The product itself became 'fast easy and familiar' to all users who saw it. We went beyond signing - supporting data and workflow to impact the whole transaction, not just the signature. The sales organization learned how to communicate the value proposition in specific terms to different markets, and developed a 'repeatable sales motion' for web, mid-market, and enterprise. Marketing got really good at generating reliable demand, and the marketing and sales orgs really started to mesh efforts. Finally, the consumer user was telling businesses that did not use DocuSign that they were missing the point. These neatly lined up and things really took off! We became the verb. It was not an explosion, but was persistent acceleration over time.

So, what are some key areas you should focus on for your escape velocity? Here are a few, but at the end of they day you can only pick 3 at a time to really nail. Where should you start?

• Overcoming Startup Challenges Startups often face constraints like limited capital, talent, or market trust. Achieving escape velocity means breaking past these initial barriers to enter a phase of rapid, sustainable growth.
• Product Adoption and Network Effects For platforms or technologies, escape velocity occurs when user adoption reaches a critical mass, creating self-sustaining network effects (e.g., Facebook, Uber, or Airbnb).
• Innovation - be 10x faster, 10x cheaper, and 10x easier than the alternative. All three is amazing, but many companies only achieve one or two.
• Category leadership - surpass others in your category by winning more customers, being the brand people talk about, and showing you are the one to bet on.
• Scaling Operations A business achieves escape velocity when it can grow its revenue or customer base without proportionally increasing costs or facing diminishing returns. This often requires leveraging economies of scale or network effects. Find them and measure.
• Revenue and Profitability Balance A company may achieve escape velocity when it transitions from heavy spending on growth (e.g., marketing, customer acquisition) to becoming self-funding, with profits reinvested to fuel further expansion.

There you have it. Escape Velocity.? Fun analogy, and now you know why.? Good luck!