Do Things That Don't Scale (Because You Can't Afford To)

Silicon Valley loves to say 'do things that don't scale.' At V Contaminator, we've perfected this. Our startups do things that don't scale, don't monetize, and often don't make any sense whatsoever.

But that's the point.

The Myth of Scalability

Silicon Valley is obsessed with scale. "Will it scale?" is the first question every VC asks. But scale is a luxury. Scale requires capital. Scale requires infrastructure. Scale requires, frankly, a level of organization that most of our founders cannot achieve.

Instead, we embrace the unscalable. We celebrate the manual. We revel in the inefficient.

Case Study: Artisanal Can Collection

One of our most successful founders, Boxcar Betty, started a premium aluminum can collection service. She would personally visit each can, assess its quality, and hand-deliver it to the recycling center. Could this scale? Absolutely not. Did it matter? Also no.

Betty's customers didn't want scale. They wanted authenticity. They wanted to know that their cans were being handled with care. They wanted a relationship with their can collector. This is the future of commerce: small, personal, and completely impractical.

Why Automation is Overrated

Everyone wants to automate everything. But automation removes the human element. It removes the mistakes that make things interesting. It removes the opportunities for serendipity.

When you do things manually, you notice things. You see patterns. You have conversations. Some of our best startup ideas have come from founders doing menial tasks and realizing there had to be a better way. (There usually wasn't, but the ideas were still interesting.)

The V Contaminator Way

We don't ask our founders if their idea will scale. We ask: Is this idea so weird that only a human could do it? Is this idea so inefficient that no rational person would attempt it? Is this idea so unmarketable that traditional VCs would laugh?

If yes, we're interested.