Innovation Doesn’t Come from Comfort: Why Scarcity Fuels Better Businesses

When we think of innovation, we often picture breakthrough ideas, radical technologies, and billion-dollar companies that seem to appear overnight. But the reality is far less glamorous. The best ideas aren’t born from abundance; they come from necessity.

Innovation doesn’t come from comfort—it comes from pressure, constraints, and the relentless drive to survive. Some of the most successful companies in history weren’t built on excessive capital but on resourcefulness, resilience, and a willingness to fight for every inch of progress.

Does More Capital Lead to a Better Business?

It’s tempting to believe that more money equals a better business. In reality, too much capital early on can be a double-edged sword. When startups raise large amounts of funding too soon, they risk spending it on the wrong things—overhiring, unnecessary office spaces, bloated marketing campaigns—before they’ve truly validated their product-market fit.

On the other hand, startups that begin with constraints are forced to make every decision count. They stay lean, move quickly, and are forced to prioritise what truly matters. Jeff Bezos famously built Amazon’s early desks from doors —this set a culture of efficiency and smart decision-making.

"He looked at desks for sale and looked at doors for sale, and the doors were a lot cheaper, so he decided to buy a door and put some legs on it".

Nico Lovejoy, Amazon employee no.5

With that, the Amazon ‘Door Desk’ was born—a scrappy, no-frills solution that wasn’t just about saving money but about setting a culture of resourcefulness. What started as a makeshift desk became a lasting symbol of Amazon’s brand DNA: efficiency, practicality, and doing more with less. More than two decades later, thousands of Amazon employees still work on evolved versions of those original door desks.

Amazon even celebrates this mindset with the Door Desk Award, recognising smart, cost-effective ideas that help deliver lower prices for customers—because in the end, the best innovations aren’t always the flashiest, but the ones that truly move the needle.

The businesses that thrive aren’t the ones with the deepest pockets; they’re the ones that make every pound or dollar work harder.

"I think it represents ingenuity, creativity and peculiarity, and the willingness to go your own path".

Nico Lovejoy, Amazon employee no.5

Creativity in the Darkest Hour

Some of the most innovative ideas come when businesses have their backs against the wall. When there’s no easy way out, companies are forced to think differently.

Constraints force ingenuity. When cash is tight, you have to be more strategic, more creative, and more willing to test unconventional solutions. This is why many of the best products don’t come from well-funded R&D labs but from scrappy founders solving real problems in the most efficient way possible.

But what if your business is already generating revenue and you don’t feel that same urgency? Can you still tap into that level of creativity?

Bringing Startup Thinking into a Revenue-Generating Business

Even if your business is past the survival stage, you can still harness the innovation and problem-solving mindset of an early-stage startup. Here’s how:

1. Set Artificial Constraints

Give your teams challenges with limited resources—whether it’s budget, time, or people. This forces them to focus on what truly matters rather than defaulting to big-budget solutions. Google’s "20% time" famously encouraged employees to work on side projects that often led to game-changing ideas.

2. Break Silos and Encourage Cross-Disciplinary Thinking

In startups, everyone wears multiple hats. That kind of thinking fuels unconventional solutions. Encourage employees from different departments to collaborate, swap ideas, and look at problems from fresh angles.

3. Create High-Stakes, Low-Risk Experiments

A/B test new ideas quickly and cheaply rather than over-researching and over-planning. Encourage a culture where small, fast failures are seen as stepping stones to success rather than something to be avoided.

4. Stay Close to the Customer

As businesses grow, they often lose touch with their customers. Founders of early-stage startups are obsessed with understanding their audience—because they have to be. Stay connected to customer feedback, run experiments, and ensure that every innovation is grounded in real needs.

5. Keep a "Survival Mode" Mentality

Ask yourself: If we had to start over tomorrow with half the resources, what would we do differently? This forces teams to focus on what’s truly essential and eliminate wasteful processes.

6. Encourage Bold Thinking

Many of the most successful startups succeeded because they challenged industry norms. What would your business look like if you weren’t afraid to break them?

The Investor’s Perspective: Battle-Tested vs. Untested

If you’re an investor, which company do you trust more? One that’s raised millions but never faced real hardship? Or one that’s been through tough times and figured out how to survive?

Resilient companies—the ones that have had to fight for their place in the market—are often better bets. They’ve learned to be resourceful, they’ve found real product-market fit, and they’ve built teams that know how to execute under pressure.

That’s why some of the best investors look for founders who have experienced struggle. It’s easy to spend money when you have it. It’s much harder to grow a business when you don’t.

Because the best businesses aren’t the ones that had the smoothest path; they’re the ones that fought through the toughest times—and came out stronger.