The New Rules of Digital-First Scaling: Lessons from Gymshark & Airbnb
Digital-native brands like Gymshark and Airbnb reveal how purpose, community, and culture-driven strategies power scale-up success in today’s innovation-driven landscape.
The digital revolution has fundamentally transformed how brands scale.
But while barriers to entry have plummeted - quite literally enabling any entrepreneur, anywhere to launch a global brand from their bedroom - the flattening of the competitive landscape has created an unprecedented level of competition and noise.
Today's scale-up leaders face a paradox: infinite reach but limited attention, global opportunities but local trust deficits, and instant feedback loops that can make or break a brand overnight.
Yet within this chaos lies opportunity for companies with the boldness of vision. And mission.
Jonathan Mildenhall, former CMO,
Airbnb
Ben Francis, CEO & Founder,
Gymshark
Companies like Gymshark (a startup turned scale-up sportswear company founded in the UK in 2012 by Ben Francis and valued at £1 billion) and Airbnb (valued at over $70 billion - about the same as the world’s largest hotel chain, Marriott International) have cracked the code, leveraging digital-native strategies to build iconic brands that transcend traditional market boundaries.
The playbooks of the founders, Ben Francis (Gymshark) and Brian Chesky (Airbnb), and in the case of Airbnb, the pivotal role of the CMO Jonathan Mildenhall in the first decade of the company’s growth phase, offer invaluable lessons for leaders navigating today's hyper-competitive landscape.
So here we go:
The New Rules of Digital-First Scaling
1. Purpose as Your North Star (Not Just Marketing Fluff)
The Shift: In the analogue era, purpose was optional - a nice-to-have bung for ESG reporting. In the digital era, purpose has shifted up a gear. Increasingly it needs to be your primary differentiator and decision-making framework.
Why It Matters: Purpose-driven companies consistently outperform competitors financially while attracting top talent in competitive markets (see last week’s post about the role of fame in building killer companies).
More critically, purpose provides the clarity needed for rapid decision-making at scale.
The Airbnb Approach:
Clear Articulation: "A world where all seven and a half billion people can belong anywhere"- simple enough for any employee to recite, profound enough to guide billion-dollar decisions
Crisis Navigation: When facing discrimination issues on their platform, Airbnb temporarily halted growth to protect their purpose, implementing a zero-tolerance policy and human community compact
Strategic Courage: CEO Brian Chesky willingly sacrificed short-term growth to maintain long-term brand integrity
Gymshark Run Club in London
The Gymshark Model:
Community-Centric Purpose: Building a community that "works hard and stays humble" - providing tools for people to be, or become, their personal best
Authentic Evolution: Maintained core values while scaling from startup to unicorn, proving purpose can remain consistent across growth stages
Actionable Takeaway: Can every person in your organization articulate your purpose in one sentence? If not, you don't have one - you have marketing copy.
2. Community as Competitive Moat
The Shift: Traditional brands built customer bases. Digital-native brands build communities that generate compound returns through network effects.
Gymshark's Community Strategy:
Scale with Intimacy: Built a "family" of 17 million people across 180 countries while maintaining personal connection
Value-First Approach: Focus on "clothing people sweat in, content that provides inspiration, and the community itself"
Repeat Engagement: Early goal was customers who return multiple times, not just one-time purchasers
Airbnb’s community-focus is at the centre of the firm’s
scale success
Airbnb's Belonging Framework:
Global Belonging: Purpose fundamentally about creating spaces where people can belong anywhere
Community Standards: Human community compact ensures platform integrity and safety
Values-Based Filtering: "If you ascribe to our ideals and values, you'll join us; if you don't, we don't want you"
Strategic Implication: Your community becomes your distribution channel, product development team, and brand ambassadors simultaneously. It's not about follower count but about engagement depth and value creation.
3. Financial Discipline as Growth Accelerator
The Counterintuitive Truth: In an era of cheap capital, bootstrapping can provide competitive advantages that funded competitors lack.
Gymshark's Bootstrap Philosophy:
Retained Control: Founder Ben Francis maintains that bootstrapping allowed faster, more entrepreneurial decision-making
Agility Advantage: Centralised decision-making without dilution from multiple stakeholders with competing opinions
Profitable Foundation: Building sustainable unit economics from day one, not relying on future funding rounds
Growth Methodology:
Incremental Excellence: "Small incremental gains on a regular basis that slowly add up," says Francis
Achievable Milestones: Never set impossible goals like "become a billion-dollar brand" - focus on the next achievable step
Daily Discipline: "100% Today, to be 1% better tomorrow"
Strategic Application: Consider whether your next funding round accelerates growth or creates dependency. Sometimes constraint breeds creativity and forces profitable innovation.
4. Purpose-Driven Marketing That Moves Culture
The Evolution: From product-focused advertising to culture-shaping content that isn’t afraid to take stands on social issues.
Airbnb's Cultural Positioning:
Moment Marketing: "Is Mankind" ad during Caitlyn Jenner's acceptance speech, supporting the transgender community
Super Bowl Strategy: "We Accept" ad focused on universal belonging, achieved 96% positive sentiment
Hashtag Dominance: Most shared and engaged hashtag during Super Bowl, proving cultural relevance drives virality
Coca-Cola's Cultural Legacy (Airbnb in the Mildenhall Era):
Barrier-Breaking Content: "Boys on the Bench" featured black and white people together for first time
American Identity: "America the Beautiful" showcasing diverse American families and cultures
Social Tension Navigation: Addressing racism and cultural divisions through brand storytelling
The Risk-Reward Calculation: Taking stands alienates some audiences but creates deeper loyalty among aligned customers. In fragmented markets, deep connection with 30% often outperforms shallow connection with 70%.
The Leadership Mindset for Digital-Era Scaling
The Optimist's Advantage
Ben Francis embodies the "eternal optimist" mindset - viewing potential business failure as fuel for growth rather than paralysing fear. This psychological resilience enables faster decision-making and recovery from setbacks.
The Discipline Framework
Mind as Computer: Building beneficial processes and habits rather than relying on motivation
Relationship-First Negotiation: Valuing long-term partnerships over short-term gains
Routine as Foundation: Consistent daily practices that compound over time
The Curiosity Paradox
Jonathan Mildenhall's approach: combining "experienced, reasoned thinking" with "the curiosity and experimental spirit of an eight-year-old." This balance enables data-driven decisions with creative breakthrough moments.
Digital Scale Playbook: 5 Strategic Imperatives
1. Define What’s Not Negotiable
Articulate purpose in one clear sentence
Identify values you'll defend even at the cost of growth
Create decision-making frameworks based on purpose, not profit alone
2. Build Community (Before Customers)
Focus on engagement depth over reach breadth
Create value for community members beyond your product
Develop community standards that self-enforce quality
3. Master Incremental Excellence
Set achievable milestones that build momentum
Measure daily improvements, not just quarterly results
Celebrate small wins while maintaining long-term vision
4. Take Cultural Stands
Identify social issues aligned with your purpose
Create content that shapes culture, not just sells products
Accept that strong positions create strong reactions
5. Maintain Founder Agility
Preserve decision-making speed as you scale
Question whether external funding accelerates or complicates growth
Build systems that maintain entrepreneurial reflexes
The Compound Effect of Digital-Native Scaling
The most successful digital-era brands don't just use digital tools - they think, respond and react digitally. They understand that in connected economies, every customer interaction, community engagement, and cultural moment creates compound returns or compound risks.
Gymshark and Airbnb demonstrate that scaling in the digital era isn't about choosing between growth and values - it's about using values as your growth engine. Purpose becomes your positioning, community becomes your distribution, and authentic cultural engagement becomes your competitive moat.
For leaders of fast-growing companies, the lesson is clear: in a world where anyone can build a business, only those who build movements will achieve lasting scale.
The question isn't whether you can reach everyone—it's whether you can matter to someone.
The digital era rewards depth over breadth, authenticity over polish, and purpose over product. Master these fundamentals, and you don't just scale a business - you build a legacy that compounds across generations of customers, employees, and communities.
While both exciting and challenging, the future belongs to brands that don't just participate in culture - they help create it.
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Simon Hardie is an author and founder of findexable - the digital analytics and insight platform. He co-hosts the Born to Disrupt podcast with Mingzulu and Disrupts
