Reversing growth to serve existing customers

The speaker describes their experience of facing a crisis when there was an infant formula shortage due to a recall by a large company. As a small startup, they saw their customer count double during this period. However, they soon realized that they were depleting their inventory faster than they could replenish it, putting their current customers at risk. They made the difficult decision to turn off their site and stop growing the business in order to ensure they could serve their existing subscribers. They remained in hibernation mode for six months, focusing solely on serving their current customers and becoming the only formula company that was able to reliably serve its customers without running out of product. This period taught them the power of storytelling and the impact they were having on their customers' lives. The speaker shares an emotional encounter with a customer who expressed gratitude for the company's decision and the confidence it gave them. Overall, they believe that prioritizing their existing customers and making the difficult choice to slow down growth was the right decision, as it allowed them to build brand loyalty and make a lasting impact.

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