Your new venture is catching fire and you need to ramp up operations quickly to handle demand. Where should you look for pointers? Try McDonald’s, Burger King or Wendy’s.

The Start-Up Genome Project analyzed thousands of high tech start-ups and found that successful companies progressed through four predictable phases. Dubbed the “Marmer Stages,” each involved a different set of objectives; Discovery was crafting and testing the idea, Validation was refining product features and generating initial orders, Efficiency was making customer acquisition and delivery processes repeatable, and Scale was ramping up and generating aggressive growth. A successful mantra was “nail it, then scale it”—confirming that the product, marketing strategy, and business model all worked before stepping on the gas with big capital, staff, and infrastructure investments.

So what happens when the time comes for a start-up to scale in a big way? Suddenly the game changes from “tinkering” to “ramping,” generating volume quickly to establish market position and cash flow. It may sound silly to high tech entrepreneurs, but fast food franchises offer unique insights—they’ve made scaling up a science.

Your new venture is catching fire and you need to ramp up operations quickly to handle demand. Where should you look for pointers? Try McDonald’s, Burger King or Wendy’s.

The Start-Up Genome Project analyzed thousands of high tech start-ups and found that successful companies progressed through four predictable phases. Dubbed the “Marmer Stages,” each involved a different set of objectives; Discovery was crafting and testing the idea, Validation was refining product features and generating initial orders, Efficiency was making customer acquisition and delivery processes repeatable, and Scale was ramping up and generating aggressive growth. A successful mantra was “nail it, then scale it”—confirming that the product, marketing strategy, and business model all worked before stepping on the gas with big capital, staff, and infrastructure investments.

So what happens when the time comes for a start-up to scale in a big way? Suddenly the game changes from “tinkering” to “ramping,” generating volume quickly to establish market position and cash flow. It may sound silly to high tech entrepreneurs, but fast food franchises offer unique insights—they’ve made scaling up a science.