Growth doesn't necessarily mean being the biggest. Unbounded growth is strongly analogous to cancer, but bounded growth up to a certain point is a valid way of

Growth doesn't necessarily mean being the biggest. Unbounded growth is strongly analogous to cancer, but bounded growth up to a certain point is a valid way of getting to an ideal team size/composition, economy of scale, or customer-base diversification to limit risk. Back in 1989, I interviewed at a place called Daedalus something-or-other in Ann Arbor, MI. They had about a dozen employees crowded into an old Victorian house. They said that they had been around for more than a decade, never had anybody leave, and this was their first hire in a few years. They had a comfortable niche in desktop publishing (IIRC) and didn't particularly intend to grow beyond that. I guess nowadays we might call it a lifestyle business. I ended up going elsewhere, but even then - at 24 - I could see the appeal and sanity of such an approach. I wish there were more such companies, but the existence of VC-funded behemoths leaves precious little oxygen for more than a few.