Platform Dynamics and Rapid Scaling: an Empirical Examination of Growth Drivers in Platform-based Start-ups

Understanding the mechanisms that enable rapid growth in platform-based technology start-ups represents a complex yet crucial research imperative for contemporary scholarship. To develop a comprehensive taxonomy of factors that facilitate rapid growth, we conducted a narrative integrative review and thematic synthesis to identify key prerequisites for the successful scaling of platform businesses. Employing purposeful sampling, we then conducted qualitative interviews (N = 13) with founders of two-sided platform start-ups to validate our findings. Our analysis reveals a multidimensional framework of success factors, systematically categorized into entrepreneurial attitudes, organizational resources, and capabilities, strategic business practices and external environmental factors. The findings demonstrate that growth in platform contexts is distinctively driven by factors such as platform usability, continuous customer involvement in iterative product development cycles, and the mindset of the founding team. Additional critical drivers include the strategic leveraging professional networks, systematic cultivation of innovation capabilities to deliver unique customer value, and sophisticated balancing the ‘chicken and egg’ challenge inherent in two-side market development. Based on the findings, we developed a theoretically grounded yet practically oriented diagnostic checklist that provides guidance for entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers seeking to support the scalable development of platform-based business models.