[vec]

Yeah, but why did Threadless possibly need to "maintain growth"?

They had a sustainable small business model. They could have consciously leveled off when they hit their natural equilibrium and remained a profitable niche vendor in perpetuity. Instead, it appears they threw out their existing succesful business model and a good chunk of their reputation trying to scale beyond their natural limits.

What's wrong with being small if you're good at it?

[technofiend]

>Yeah, but why did Threadless possibly need to "maintain growth"?

MBA disease: Every MBA learns their reason for existing is to grow the business and extract maximum value for shareholders.

[mikepurvis]

I completely agree with you, and there's nothing wrong with a successful cottage/lifestyle business. But it takes a certain maturity to see it that way, and they might have caught the startup bug and thought they could turn custom t-shirts into a billion dollar business... who knows?