Waitlist-only startup trend illustration Culture & Mindset Growth Strategy Startup News

Bootstrapped but Booked Out: The Rising Trend of Waitlist-Only Startups

Why are startups deliberately restricting access instead of maximizing signups? Because controlled, invite-based growth has a well-documented track record of building stronger retention and pricing power than open signups — and Superhuman is the clearest, most extensively studied case. In 2019, with only 15,000 active users, Superhuman had more than 180,000 people on its waitlist; […]

Growth Features Growth Strategy

The Rise of Profitable-First Startups: Why Burn-Rate Flex Is Dead in 2025

Is the “profitability over growth” shift among Indian startups actually reflected in real company financials, or is it mostly narrative? It’s real, but messier and slower than the clean success stories suggest. Shiprocket took until FY25 — not FY23 — to post its first full year of positive cash EBITDA, after cutting its cash burn […]