Growth Allocation
Early-stage companies must allocate limited resources.
Companies in early growth face identical allocation problems. The ones that die allocated to visibility (shoots) when they should have allocated to infrastructure (roots).
A seedling has limited photosynthetic energy. Where should it allocate? To roots (accessing water/nutrients), to shoots (capturing light), to defenses (chemical, physical), or to storage (reserves for recovery). The optimal allocation depends on what's limiting: water-limited environments need 60-70% to roots; light-limited environments need 60-70% to shoots; herbivore-heavy environments need 20-30% to defenses. Plants sense limiting factors and allocate accordingly through phenotypic plasticity.
Business Application of Growth Allocation
Early-stage companies must allocate limited resources. Stripe allocated 70% to developer experience (shoots). WhatsApp allocated 90% to reliability (roots). Groupon allocated 80% to expansion (shoots) without roots - and died. The survivors correctly identified the limiting factor and allocated heavily there.