Why do some products, companies, and social programs thrive as they grow while others peter out? 

There are five causes:

1) False positives, or inaccurately interpreting a piece of evidence or data;

All ventures must understand their potential audience. The first way to do this is by making sure your test samples in the small scale reflect the larger population at scale.  

To weed out biases, make sure your early adopters are a random sample. You should also make sure that your survey ...

When a seemingly promising idea loses efficacy or profitability as it expands, we call it a “voltage drop.” These failures to scale never happen because of one single reason.

False positives occur when you interpret a piece of evidence or data as proof that something is true, when in fact i...

A spillover effect is the unintended impact one event or outcome can have on another event or outcome. A classic example is when a city opens a new factory, and the air pollution it produces impacts the health of nearby residents.

As you scale, the likelihood of spillovers increases dramati...

To scale successfully, you need to determine not only how many people like your idea, but also what they’re willing to pay for it and, crucially, how much it will cost to provide.

• One strategy to escape the cost trap of scaling is to make sure you benefit from economies of scale, a ski...