In my opinion / experience there are two areas of frugality that are important to focus on for the types of high-growth venture-backed companies that are common

In my opinion / experience there are two areas of frugality that are important to focus on for the types of high-growth venture-backed companies that are common topics on HN. 1. Having a non-wasteful, nonindulgent culture. I've heard culture described as "a set of rules for what you will tolerate" and you don't want to tolerate waste. If you're trying to grow fast you typically need to spend money to make money, but it's important that a culture of low-consequence spending doesn't turn into a world where you're throwing money at anything under the sun just because you have a lot of $ in the bank. 2. Having a handle on your gross and operating margins. It's really hard to dig yourself out of a whole of low/negative/declining margins, as they are often indicative of structural assumptions that get built into your business model.