How to Build Growth that Compounds

Stunts Get You Seen. Systems Keep You Alive.

The Power of a Stunt
Every founder has a favorite stunt story. Not long ago, Khetan pulled one off outside Y Combinator’s Demo Day. He set up a huge sign that read something like, “If you’re tired of hearing the same AI pitch, come talk to me.”

It was bold, it was funny, and it worked. People stopped. Investors talked. Twitter lit up. For a brief moment, he cut through the chaos of Demo Day and owned the spotlight. That is the magic of stunts: they spike, but they do not stick.

Why Founders Chase Stunts
Stunts are addictive because they deliver instant hits of attention. One clever move can get you impressions, meetings, maybe even a TechCrunch mention. And when you are in survival mode, that spotlight feels like oxygen. The startup world teaches us that visibility equals traction, and for a moment, it feels like winning.

Legendary Examples
History is full of legendary examples. Airbnb sold “Obama O’s” and “Cap’n McCain’s” cereal boxes during the 2008 election. PayPal paid people $20 to sign up and another $20 to refer a friend, creating viral growth before virality was even a word. Dropbox’s 2008 explainer video turned product demos into must-watch content.

My Own Stunt
I have done my share too. At SF Tech Week, I applied to Granola, a competitor, just to see how they positioned themselves. Half curiosity, half chaos energy. I never heard back, but the story itself was ready to become content that people would have loved. Stunts work because they break expectations. They make you memorable. They get people talking.

The Problem With Stunts
But stunts do not compound. A billboard, a viral post, a funny demo — they get you a week of attention. Then the world scrolls on. Without a system underneath to capture and convert that attention, you are back at zero. Plenty of startups have gone viral and still vanished six months later. Sparks are exciting, but sparks alone do not keep a fire alive.

What Actually Lasts
What lasts are systems. At Shadow, systems are the quiet flywheels that keep growth compounding. They are not glamorous, but they work.

• Minimal Viable Actions (MVA): a daily list of non-negotiables so growth moves forward even on chaotic days.
• Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): creating content designed to surface in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, not just Google.
• Indexing discipline: every blog is verified in Google’s index. If it is not indexed, it does not exist.
• Evergreen content: comparison posts, listicles, and guides that bring in traffic and citations for years.

Nobody is writing viral threads about XML sitemaps or schema markup, but these systems keep you visible long after the stunt fades.

Stunts + Systems Together
This is not an anti-stunt rant. Stunts matter. They spark stories, energize teams, and break through noise. But they only matter if they plug into a system. Khetan’s sign worked because it grabbed attention. The real test is where that attention goes. Into a pipeline? A newsletter? A funnel of leads? Or does it just stay a funny story people retell?

My Granola stunt got laughs within our team, but it only mattered because it tied back to Shadow’s larger narrative: we are building more than just another note-taker. Without that system, it would have been just another one-off. The best founders know how to use both. They spark moments with stunts, then compound them with systems.

The Takeaway
If you are a founder, remember this: stunts will get you noticed, systems will keep you alive. A stunt without a system is noise. A stunt with a system can change your trajectory.

So pull off the stunt. Apply to your competitor. Hang the sign. Break the pattern. But make sure the engine is running underneath, because in startups, anyone can create a spark. The ones who build systems are the ones who last.

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