I don't know about others but so far my successful playthroughs have gone like this:
1. Start with a couple of weak ass ships
2. Get a commission, usually Hegemony, and / or do trade contracts in a system with 2 opposing factions (so no shared market, usually pirates + other faction)
3. Smash a few pirate fleets to pick up some spare ships, keep doing this until you have a sizeable fleet, maybe buy a tanker for exploring
4. Happen to stumble on Paragon-class blueprint scouring the galaxy
5. Establish colony after a few months of Hegemony welfare bucks, make sure you at least have organics, ore deposits and maybe volatiles in the same system to become self-sufficient
6. Max upgrade a few colonies making like 1 million per month protected by your Paragon patrol fleets
7. Start getting Invasions (Nexerelin mod) and AI Inspections which auto-fail, annoy Hegemony and lose commission but it doesn't matter because you're already minted from colonies
8. Systematically genocide entire universe to stop factions raiding you every week, aside independents, maybe do some faction jobs for them to get your rep back up
9. ? ? ? ? ?
10. Win the game
Is there any way this could be disrupted somehow? Or maybe some added problem-solving for depth, who knows. Until then I think I've explored all I can in Starsector for the time being.