Many startups are aspiring to “grow into their valuations” from 2021. For most of them, this will take a couple of years, at minimum. Even once they reach that target revenue level, these startups will need to show that at the end of that period, they can continue to grow fast — since their valuation presumed they would be able to sustain high growth rates into the future.

Mary D’Onofrio, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, coined the term “growth endurance.” The idea is: If you’re a venture-backed SaaS company, it’s not unusual to grow fast to $1M or $3M in ARR. What is unusual is growing fast to $100M ARR and continuing to grow fast after that. Growth endurance is about sustaining those high growth rates.

This isn’t an argument for being a turtle instead of a hare. It’s also not an argument for being a hare for longer distances — because the essence of a hare is the lack of long-term perspective. Companies that sustain high growth endurance blend the best attributes of the hare (speed) and the turtle (longevity).

In this conversation, Mary and I discuss the origin story of the term growth endurance and why it matters. We cover:

* How does growth endurance factor into her investment decisions?

* What counts as “good” growth endurance?

* What are the primary factors that allow a startup to have high growth endurance?

You can listen to the podcast or else read the lightly edited transcript of the conversation below. Let's dive in!

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