Crisis as Strategy: How Tropic’s ‘Wartime’ Operating Model Accelerated Product-Market Fit

Most founders try to minimize chaos. Tropic’s David Campbell runs toward it. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, he revealed how embracing crisis mode became their secret weapon for accelerating growth.

The Comfort in Chaos

“I’m generally uncomfortable if everything is going okay,” David admits. “Like, if there’s a reason that it’s okay to sign off at p.m., I feel like surely something is wrong. I actually feel very engaged and checked in when there are big, heavy problems to solve.”

This counterintuitive approach proved valuable when their market suddenly became crowded. “We had one competitor we’ve linked. We have like 30 now,” he explains. While others might panic, Campbell saw opportunity: “There’s actually an upside to having a crowded market and an upside to having lots and lots of competitors if you’re the one that is willing to lean in extremely aggressively and kind of address that challenge head on.”

Redefining Wartime Leadership

For Campbell, wartime leadership isn’t about aggression. “Wartime for me is not about violence or anger. It’s about really fast paced decision making in the absence of data and with lots and lots of ambiguity and with an eye towards meeting the challenge head on and directly addressing the competition.”

This mindset shaped their approach to product development. Following the example of Rippling’s Parker Conrad, they adopted an aggressive product strategy: “Like Parker, who I mentioned a moment ago, we’ve stolen a lot of those ideas without realizing that we’d stolen them. And we’re building lots of different products at once really rapidly.”

Building a Crisis-Ready Culture

The wartime mentality became a cultural catalyst. “If there’s one thing that we’ve done right at Tropic, I do think it’s the culture,” David reflects. “And that really just means that we’ve hired the right people, because the people create the culture. You don’t really have that luxury, even as a CEO.”

This culture thrives on challenges: “The culture that we have is one that I think is really rallied around the vision and really excited to go to war, in a manner of speaking. And if you don’t have that wartime backdrop, you don’t have that galvanization.”

Managing the Human Element

Campbell is candid about the emotional toll: “With regards to competitors, with regards to terminations of executives, whatever it is you have to go through, it hurts tremendously, I think, to be a Founder.” His solution? “What’s really important is that you feel those feelings and move through them. And that’s the key, because moving through those feelings puts you in a position of inspiration.”

This balanced approach – embracing crisis while acknowledging its challenges – has helped maintain team resilience. “If you’re stuck in those feelings, if you can’t get out of them, if you don’t have levers that you can pull in your life to move through those feelings, that’s when you get really distracted.”

Converting Crisis to Competitive Advantage

The wartime mindset helped Tropic stay focused amid market chaos. “I don’t care almost whatsoever what any of our competitors product roadmap is because I believe that ours is better,” David notes. “And as soon as I get distracted from that gut instinct that I think CEOs really have to listen to and I start chasing somebody else’s features, I’m basically signing up for being one to two months behind forever.”

For founders building in today’s challenging market, Tropic’s experience offers a compelling alternative to conventional wisdom. Instead of trying to minimize chaos, perhaps the better strategy is to embrace it, use it to galvanize your team, and convert market uncertainty into decisive action. After all, in a world where change is constant, maybe the most dangerous strategy is trying to play it safe.