After scaling a single location to its revenue limit (e.g., $9M in a dental practice), the primary growth strategy shifts from optimizing internal processes to duplicating the successful model in a new location. The constraint moves from marketing to talent acquisition for the new site.

Fintech giant Ramp attributes its early hiring success to building in New York City. Unlike the hyper-competitive, short-tenure culture of Silicon Valley at the time, NYC offered a pool of talented engineers seeking long-term roles. This talent arbitrage allowed Ramp to build a stable, high-quality team and "punch way above its weight."

CZI's Biohub model hinges on a simple principle: physically seating biologists and engineers from different institutions (Stanford, UCSF, Berkeley) together. This direct proximity fosters collaboration and creates hybrid experts, overcoming the institutional silos often reinforced by traditional grant-based funding.

Despite YC's push to stay in San Francisco, Hera's founders are returning to Berlin. They believe they can hire top AI talent more affordably and with less competition than in the Bay Area. Since their product is global and consumer-facing, an SF presence isn't critical for customer acquisition.

A key driver of Legend Biotech's $2 billion revenue run rate is its successful regulatory strategy. By getting its CAR T therapy, CARVICTI, approved as a second-line treatment in both the US and Europe, the company significantly expanded its addressable patient market beyond last-resort cases.

Responding to Wall Street pressure to de-risk, large pharmaceutical firms cut internal early-stage research. This led to an exodus of talent and the rise of contract research organizations (CROs), creating an infrastructure that, like cloud computing for tech, lowered the barrier for new biotech startups.

Shopify intentionally aimed to be the career-defining company in a secondary market (Ottawa), attracting top local talent who would later "disperse" to create a new generation of local startups, building an ecosystem.

To overcome production bottlenecks, Legend Biotech employs a diversified manufacturing strategy. They operate their own large facilities in the US and Belgium while also contracting with pharmaceutical giant Novartis to produce their CAR T therapy. This enables a rapid scale-up to a planned 10,000 annual doses.

Instead of creating a tech sector from scratch, the most effective path is to identify and invest in tech niches adjacent to a city's existing industries (e.g., Energy Tech for an oil town). This leverages existing talent, infrastructure, and supply chains, making the transition more natural and sustainable.