For entrepreneurs, explosive growth is usually considered the ultimate business success story. But for Puneet Nanda, CEO of oral care brand GuruNanda, a sudden surge in sales became a lesson in how quickly success can affect decision-making.
In 2022, GuruNanda’s oil pulling products went viral on TikTok, creating a rapid increase in demand and putting the company on an accelerated growth trajectory. The attention was a major win for the brand, but it also created an unexpected challenge: Nanda began believing the momentum would continue indefinitely.
That confidence contributed to what Nanda describes as the “Winner Effect,” a psychological phenomenon in which winning can lead to increased confidence and risk-taking. In his case, the success of the products influenced the way he viewed the company’s future demand.
Despite warnings from his finance and operations teams, Nanda made the decision to significantly increase inventory. The move was based on the assumption that the viral momentum would continue and that demand would remain elevated.
Instead, the experience exposed one of the less-discussed dangers of hyper-growth: success can make it harder for leaders to recognize when they need to slow down.
Nanda’s inventory gamble could have created a major financial burden for the company. However, an unexpected development ultimately helped limit the consequences. Global shipping disruptions tightened supply in the market, helping the company avoid the worst-case scenario associated with having significantly over-purchased inventory.
The experience gave Nanda a new perspective on the relationship between confidence and business leadership.
One lesson is the importance of recognizing when success may be influencing judgment. Rapid growth can create a sense that previous decisions will continue producing the same results, even when market conditions are changing.
Nanda also emphasizes the importance of creating safeguards against founder overconfidence. During successful periods, executives may be less inclined to listen to criticism or challenge assumptions. Encouraging finance, operations and other team members to disagree can provide an important counterbalance.
Another lesson is the value of pausing before making major decisions. When sales suddenly accelerate, the natural response may be to move faster, increase production and invest heavily in expansion. Nanda argues that extraordinary success can actually be the moment when leaders need to slow down and examine the data more carefully.
For founders and executives, the GuruNanda experience illustrates an uncomfortable reality: growth itself does not guarantee that every decision made during a winning streak is a good one.
Sometimes, the greatest threat to a business isn’t failure. It can be believing that success will never end.