Understanding rapid growth in platform-based startups is complex yet crucial. To shed light on the factors that enable rapid growth, we merged the extensive literature on rapid growth with the limited research on platform businesses. This allowed us to derive key prerequisites for the successful and rapid scaling of platform startups. To validate our assumptions, we conducted qualitative interviews with the founders of two-sided platforms. It was found that growth in platform contexts is driven by platform usability, ongoing customer involvement in product development, and the mindset of the founding team. Other crucial factors also include being founded by a team, having an extensive professional network, and creating unique customer value. These insights provide valuable guidance for entrepreneurs and professionals in platform-based businesses. This study adds significantly to the literature on startup growth by highlighting of timing and the recurrence of success factors for platform startups.
