--- title: Startup Gamma description: "Explore the concept of ‘gamma’ in startups: the exponential growth potential of dynamic teams solving real problems. Learn how TimeSentry AI is hacking and hustling its way to transforming timekeeping with cutting-edge innovation." image: https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hubfs/greeks-1.png --- [Skip to content](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/startup-gamma#main-content) [![timesentry_rebrand copy-2](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hubfs/timesentry_rebrand%20copy-2.png)](https://www.timesentry.ai) ![menu-toggle](https://21645388.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/21645388/menu-toggle.svg) ![menu-close](https://21645388.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/21645388/menu-close.svg) Book a Demo # Startup Gamma [By - Joseph Frantz,](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/author/joseph-frantz) Jan 17, 2025 ![](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hubfs/greeks-1.png) #### Knowing Your Greeks In finance, “Knowing your Greeks” is a slang term for understanding the sensitivity of an option’s price to the underlying factors driving its value. For example, Delta is the first derivative: the change in the price of the option relative to the change in the stock price. It’s helpful, when dealing with high-volatility assets like options to understand these derivatives, as they form the building blocks of dynamic pricing models. This is the trivia you learn while getting a master’s in finance. Much of it turns out to be quite useless in the world corporate finance when you’re skimming page 412 of some middle market company’s trial balance for halfway-plausible EBITDA addbacks. But some of it sticks and you end up thinking about it as you make your way through life. ##### ***As a startup founder – I laser focus on gamma: the second derivative.***   #### The Possibility of Exponential Growth Startups are fundamentally about exponential growth. Investments in startups are call options on exponential growth. Every useful framework in startup-land is about finding the magic ingredients to enable the *possibility* of exponential growth. - Can you zero in on where the market is pulling? - Can you identify your target customer - Who are they - What are they buying - Why are they buying (any why from *you*) - Is this a multi-billion dollar total addressable market? - Multi-billion dollar serviceable addressable market? - Multi-billion dollar serviceable obtainable market? - Given those prerequisites, do you have a strong and proven maniacally-focused team that can execute technologically and commercially?   That’s just the table stakes. And it’s all shorthand for understanding whether your startup happens to exist in a petri dish with all the right ingredients for exponential growth.   ##### The shorthand for this in finance is gamma. The question is not, “How quickly is your startup growing?” but “How quickly is it increasing its growth rate? Sometimes maximizing gamma means zooming out and sometimes it means fingers to keys. Because no matter where you land on sussing out the abstract nature of growth, yeah yeah philosophy etc, there are only a few boots-on-the-ground levers that can be pulled. The main ones: 1. Push commits 2. Book meetings 3. Place content Simplified further, I'd say there's really just two things that matter: 1. Hacking 2. Hustling Done correctly, word gets out that a problem is solved. The combined actions 1-3 above lead to paying customers. Their satisfaction travels to new customers by word of mouth, a lagging measure of which is your "NPS." An elegant technological solution to a problem is replicated digitally at de minimis marginal cost (90%+ GM SaaS babyyy) until the problem ceases to exist in its prior form and in its ashes stands the new enterprise.   #### This is the story of all successful software. I intend to make it our story as well.   This week we primarily pushed commits (12) and booked meetings (5). We did not place much content, although the plan is to do so in the near future (across all of your favorite social platforms!). At that point, you may be asked to “like and subscribe.” But for now the only content we are placing is this weekly update.   ###### Keep hacking, keep hustling,   Joseph Frantz CEO, TimeSentry AI ###### Category ###### Popular Post - [AI, Legal Services, and Jevons Paradox](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/ai-legal-market-expansion-jevons-paradox) - [Making it Go Faster](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/making-it-go-faster) - [TimeSentry joins Techstars Boulder!](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/timesentry-joins-techstars-boulder) - [The Efficiency Paradox: Why Tech Makes Us Busier](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/technology-efficiency-paradox-time-pressure) - [Thinking Outside the Box](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/thinking-outside-the-box) ###### Subscribe ### Leave a Comment ### Similar Blogs #### [The Efficiency Paradox: Why Tech Makes Us Busier](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/technology-efficiency-paradox-time-pressure) By [Joseph Frantz](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/author/joseph-frantz) 21 October 2025 Cross-country travel once consumed weeks. Now it takes hours. Yet we feel more rushed than ever.... [READ MORE](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/startup-gamma) [![Thinking Outside the Box](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hs-fs/hubfs/ninedots.png?width=352&name=ninedots.png)](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/thinking-outside-the-box) #### [Thinking Outside the Box](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/thinking-outside-the-box) By [Joseph Frantz](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/author/joseph-frantz) 19 January 2025 [READ MORE](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/startup-gamma) [![Time on the CLOC](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hs-fs/hubfs/CLOC.jpg?width=352&name=CLOC.jpg)](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/time-on-the-cloc) #### [Time on the CLOC](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/time-on-the-cloc) By [Joseph Frantz](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/author/joseph-frantz) 16 January 2025 [READ MORE](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/startup-gamma) [![timesentry_rebrand copy-2](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hubfs/timesentry_rebrand%20copy-2.png)](https://www.timesentry.ai) TimeSentry provides all the basic features and benefits of existing time tracking and billing software while adding a meta-layer of AI to autopopulate timesheets; so your firm can spend less time billing and more time billing. ###### Get In Touch info@timesentry.ai Copyright © 2026 TimeSentry AI [Privacy Policy |](https://timesentry.ai/privacy) [Terms & Condition](https://timesentry.ai/terms-of-service) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Joseph Frantz", "url" : "https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/author/joseph-frantz" }, "dateModified" : "2025-01-20T00:14:13.270Z", "datePublished" : "2025-01-17T04:40:02.000Z", "headline" : "Startup Gamma", "image" : [ "https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hubfs/greeks-1.png" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/startup-gamma", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hubfs/timesentry_rebrand%20copy-2.png" } } } ```