STARTUP GROWTH RESOURCES CHEAT SHEET

01 STARTUP GLOSSARY

02 BLOGS

03 RESOURCE LIBRARY

CONTENTS.

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Growth Hacking – Coined in 2010 by Sean Ellis, growth hacking uses a

combination of creativity, analytical thinking, experimentation and metrics tracking

to sell products, gain exposure and encourage rapid growth within a company.

Dropbox and AirBNB are two companies that have popularized the use of growth

hacking techniques.

Analytics – Analytics is a broad term encompassing all of the different metrics a

startup might track, as well as the programs that provide this data. Google

Analytics is a popular free program that many entrepreneurs use to generate

metrics data.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) – CRO refers to the process of making

changes to a website or landing page with the goal of increasing the number of

online visitors that take a specific conversion action (for example, completing a

lead generation form or purchasing a product).

Split Testing – The two types of split testing – A/B split testing and multivariate

testing – involve conducting controlled, randomized website tests that present

website visitors with different combinations of text and images in order to uncover

the winning combination that improves a specific website metric. For example, a

website using A/B split testing might randomly deploy two versions of a landing

page with different headlines to see which contributes to more purchases.

Startup Glossary.

General Phrases

Curious about some of the startup and growth hacking terminology commonly

used? Refer to the glossary below for definitions to these key phrases.

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Call-to-Action (CTA) – A call-to-action is a piece of text or an image that exhorts

visitors to take a specific action. A “Buy Now’ button is a CTA, as is a closing

paragraph to a blog post that reads, “Take advantage of this special offer now by

completing the form below.”

Pivot – According to Steve Blank, a pivot is a fundamental change in a business’s

customer segment, channel, revenue model/pricing, resources, activities, costs,

partners or customer acquisition strategy. Pivots occur when untested business

hypotheses are disproven, requiring a change in one or more elements

underpinning these assumptions.

Product/Market Fit – Essentially, product/market fit refers to the extent to

which a given product satisfies a market demand. An improved fishing pole has a

good product/market fit with fisherman, while a new set of work gloves does not.

Software as a Service (SaaS) – SaaS is the name given to software products

that are centrally hosted by a vendor and made available to customers over the

internet. Dropbox, Quickbooks, Microsoft Office 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud are

all popular examples of SaaS programs.

Disruption – Though the term has become a bit overused, a “disruptive” product

is one that challenges traditions in an existing market. A product that offers a

significantly different pricing model, appeals to a new set of target customers or

displaces older technology can be considered disruptive.

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Startup Glossary.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – KPIs are a set of metrics that a

business tracks to assess its ongoing performance. A startup may track one KPI

or 20, but what’s important is that the selected metrics provide an overall picture of

the startup’s health and viability.

One Metric That Matters (OMTM) – As an alternative to a set of KPIs, some

growth hackers prefer to focus on “one metric that matters.” This OMTM might be

any of the metrics listed below, or it could be any other data point that provides an

overall snapshot of the business’s progress.

Churn Rate – Churn rate refers to the percentage of customers that stop

subscribing to a service. If your business involves a free trial or a month-to-month

subscription, your churn rate would be the percentage of prospects that fall out of

your trial period without subscribing, or the percentage of customers that cancel

their paid subscriptions during any given month.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) – Depending on the complexity of the

calculation, CAC can include everything from paid ad spends to the overhead costs

accrued during the time it takes a lead to go from prospect to customer. CAC is

best used when compared to LTV to ensure that the startup isn’t spending more to

get new customers than it’s receiving in revenue from new users.

Lifetime Value of Customer (LTV) – LTV involves the net profit a single

customer can be expected to contribute to a business throughout his or her

lifetime. If, for example, your startup sells a monthly subscription at $300/month,

your average customer cancels after 27 months and you have a CAC of $1,450 per

new user, your LTV would be $6,650.

Metrics Terminology

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Startup Glossary.

Average Order Volume (AOV) – Another metric that some startups use to

measure progress is the average size of each order that goes out. If your AOV was

$100 in October 2013 and $200 in October 2014, this could indicate that your

business’s performance is improving.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) – MRR – or, the amount of recurring

revenue a business generates month over month – is a metric that’s popular with

Sean Ellis, Hiten Shah and other well-known growth hackers. Points in this metric’s

favor include its ability to take new business, churn, upgrades and downgrades

into effect, as well as its compounding nature.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) – A less commonly used growth metric is a

business’s NPS, which is a score falling between -100 and 100 that measures

customers’ willingness to recommend a company to others. This score can be

helpful in detecting changes in consumer sentiment, but does not always directly

tie to revenue or growth.

Daily Active Users (DAU)/Monthly Active Users (MAU) – DAU and MAU

measure the “stickiness” of an internet product by determining the number of

users that visit during a given day or month. When DAU or MAU metrics are

trending upwards, it can be assumed that the product is gaining traction among its

target user base.

AARRR – “AARRR” is a startup metrics model that incorporates five key data

points: acquisition, activation, retention, referrals and revenue. Focusing on all five

is more complex than tracking a single OMTM, but can give a more comprehensive

look at a business’s health.

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Startup Glossary.

Angel investor – An angel investor is a single person who offers capital to a

startup in exchange for an equity/ownership stake. Angel investment is usually

sought and offered early in a startup’s life and typically precedes seed round

fundraising.

Burn rate – Burn rate refers to the speed at which an entrepreneur or startup

spends its money. As an example, if Startup A earns a $500,000 fundraising round

and spends an average of $10,000/month on everything from paid ads to

paperclips, its $10,000/month burn rate gives it approximately 50 months of

capital.

Due diligence – Before an investor contributes capital to a company, the “due

diligence” process occurs, during which investors analyze the startup’s current

financial situation and future potential. This detailed analysis helps investors

estimate the ROI they might receive on their contributions.

Seed round – A seed round is typically the first fundraising round a startup will

pursue. Funds from these efforts are often used to prove a concept or build a

prototype, rather than fuel an existing product line’s expansion.

Venture capital – Venture capital is money that comes from venture capitalists

(VCs), who may be individual investors or firms that invest in particular markets or

sectors. Venture capital is typically provided to companies with high growth

potential in exchange for equity/ownership stakes.

Fundraising rounds – Capital fundraising efforts made by startups are typically

labeled as follows: Seed, Series A, Series B and Series C. Further alphabetically-

labeled rounds may be carried out, though investors must be certain that potential

profit still remains based on the equity already given out and the product’s

likelihood of significant market success.

Fundraising Phrasing

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Startup Glossary.

Insight from the man who coined the phrase

“growth hacking”

A great all-around startup blog based on the

experiences of VC Mark Suster

Want to put your newly-learned startup lingo to work? Add these 20 blogs to

your RSS feed reader and check in regularly for insight from top entrepreneurs:

1. Sean Ellis

2. Both Sides of the Table

Self-explanatory blog by Eric Ries, author of the book The Lean Startup

Tips on working and living better for

entrepreneurs and startups at all stages

of growth

3. Startup Lessons Learned

4. Work Awesome

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Blogs.

A self-described “site for entrepreneurs,”

including discussions, resource articles and

more

The godfather of modern marketing techniques

5. OnStartups

6. Seth Godin

A venture capitalist who writes on topics of interest to entrepreneurs

Get updates on SEO straight from the mouth of Google’s web spam team

leader

7. Tomasz Tunguz

8. Matt Cutts

More great SEO wisdom comes from Rand Fishkin,

founder of Moz

9. Rand Fishkin

Lessons learned from a team of 500 startup founders, mentors

and investors

10. 500 Startups

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Blogs.

The web’s go-to expert for all things analytics

Great blog posts on marketing, startups, life hacks and

more from the founder of AppSumo and Okdork

11. Avinash Kaushik

12. Noah Kagan

“Startups + marketing + geekery” from Jason

Cohen, founder of WP Engine and Smart Bear

Software

Tips and tricks from a former LinkedIn executive who blogs on everything

from personal finance to growth hacking

13. Jason Cohen

14. Adam Nash

Startup lessons from a former Zynga exec, now working as a VC

15. Nabeel Hyatt

Growth hacking tips from a former growth lead at Facebook

16. Chamath Palihapitiya

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Blogs.

Blogging on growth topics since 2006, Jeremy is

one of the web’s best sources of startup advice

Essays on startups, marketing and user growth written by former

entrepreneur-in-residence and current advisor/investor Andrew Chen

17. Jeremy Liew

18. Andrew Chen

Often-controversial, always-uncensored insight from VC Alex Payne on

business, technology and living life in general

Tips on hacking your business, mind and body from the man who brought

the idea of hacking to our collective consciousness

19. Alex Payne

20. Tim Ferriss

And of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my cousin Neil Patel’s blogs at

QuickSprout and KISSMetrics. Check them out for cutting-edge insight on

everything from copywriting to analytics and more.

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Blogs.

Buffer Social – “Idea to Paying Customers in 7 Weeks: How We Did It”

Entrepreneur – “How to Start a Business in 10 Days”

The Muse – “You Have an Idea – Now What? 3 First Steps for Your

Startup”

Tomasz Tunguz – “The 3 Minute Technique for Brainstorming Your

Startup’s Product Roadmap”

Healthpreneur – “How to Start An Online Business”

Perception IT – “Ultimate Ecommerce Guide for Online Entrepreneurs”

Entrepreneurship in a Box – “50 Questions to Develop Business Idea”

Chron – “7 Steps of Product Development”

Visual.ly – “10 Rules to a Great Startup Idea”

How to Get Started

The following resource library is grouped chronologically by the different

stages every startup goes through.

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Resource Library.

Usability Hour – “How to Validate Your Ideas for Free With This Landing Page”

Hatchery – “How to Validate Your Business Idea By Testing a Hypothesis”

Growth Hackers – “7 Steps to Validate Your Startup Idea”

Validating Your Idea

Optimizing Rocks – “If You Build It… It’s Just There”

Moz – “How to Grow: 21 Tactics to Acquire Customers”

Growth Hackers – “19 Ways Growth Hackers Acquire Customers”

Medium – “The Growth Hacker’s Cookbook”

Getting Your Initial Customers

Conversion XL – “9 Case Studies That’ll Help You Reduce SaaS Churn”

KISSMetrics – “How Mention Reduced Churn by 22% in One Month”

The Next Web – “Creating Customers for Life: 50 Resources on Loyalty, Churn and

Customer Retention”

Tomasz Tunguz – “Why Everything I Thought I Knew About Churn is Wrong”

Customer Retention

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Resource Library.

Infinite Conversions – “Conversion Rates Don’t Really Matter: Here’s 8

Reasons”

Growth Hackers – “What’s the Best Way to Measure Relationship Between

Conversion Rates and Testing?”

Paddle – “6 Tools We Use to Grow Our Startup”

Twoodo – “A Huge Epic List of Growth Hacking Tools for Non-Coders”

Measuring Your Performance

Clarity – “Measuring the Health of Your SaaS Business: the Ultimate Metrics Guide”

Growth Hackers – “The Only Metric That Matters”

KISSMetrics – “How to Calculate Lifetime Value – The Infographic”

Roy Povarchik – “7 Metrics Every Ecommerce Marketer Should Follow to Achieve

Growth”

Core Metrics for Startups

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Resource Library.

Conversion XL – “Unlocking Your Company’s Growth Engine with Conversion

Rate Optimization”

Conversioner – “How and Where to Start Optimizing to Increase Your Conversion”

Conversioner – “10 Psychological Triggers to Boost Revenues”

Perception IT – “Some Minor Changes Can Give Big Increment in Conversion

Rates”

Userlike – “8 Sure-Fire Ways to Skyrocket Your eCommerce Conversion Rates”

Conversion Rate Optimization

Rob Sobers – “Growth Hacking Trello Template”

The Agency Post – “The 50/50 Experiment: A New Technique for Growth Hacking”

Growth Hackers – “How Do You Capture and Manage Your Ideas for Growth

Hacking Experiments”

Referral SaaSquatch – “Building a Process for Growth Experiments”

Growth Hacking Experiments

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Resource Library.

Startup Bloggers – “5 Effective SEO Tactics That Won’t Cost Your Startup a

Dime”

Medium – “SEO Checklist for Startups: 10 Essential SEO Tips/Tricks for Your

New Website”

Forbes – “7 Ways That SEO Is Uniquely Important for Entrepreneurs”

Giankar – “Video SEO: The Only Guide You Need”

Bloggers Ideas – “Top 15 On-Page SEO Tools to Optimize Your Site”

ePoint Digital – “22 Local SEO Tips and Tricks for Small Businesses”

Synup – “30 Common Local SEO Problems & How to Fix Them”

SEO for Startups

Search Engine Journal – “Content Marketing Tips for Launching a New Product:

Interview with Guy Kawasaki”

Unbounce – “9 Content Marketing Growth Hacks to Drive Traffic and Conversions”

Jeff Bullas – “21 Content Marketing Lessons from the New York Times”

Heavybit Industries – “Interview: Hubspot’s VP Content on Developer Content

Marketing”

Built Visible – “Content Development: Finding Great Topics for Your Target Audience”

McMurry/TMG – “This is Your Brain on Content Marketing”

Small Business Trends – “10 Content Marketing Tips from Our Community”

Content Marketing

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Resource Library.

Marketer Graham – “Fundraising Marketing: Hacks for Raising Your Round”

Seedcamp – “Setting Appropriate Milestones in an Early-Stage Startup”

Clarity – “Then & Now: Youngest Person to Raise VC Shares His Growth Path”

AdEspresso – “Want $1M? Here’s How We Did – Anatomy of An AngelList

Fundraising”

Blonde2.0 Blog – “How We Helped Raise $75,000 for an Indiegogo Campaign

– Step-by-Step”

Rocketship.fm – “Growth, Pricing and the Realities of Funding”

Squirrly – “Funding Your Startup is Now a Piece of Cake”

Enamtila – “How to Succeed in Crowdfunding & Achieve 1090% Funding Goal”

Jay Gould – “Value is What You Create – Price is What You Get”

Raising Money

Entrepreneur – “5 Steps for Building a Great Startup Team”

Step Consulting – “Wanting the A-Team is One Thing. Getting It Is

Another”

Social Media Today – “How to Assemble a Content Marketing Team for

Your Blog”

Tomasz Tunguz – “Startup Best Practices #9 – Structuring One on Ones

To Maximize Your Team’s Success”

Building a Team

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Resource Library.

Ramon Bez – “Driving User Growth Through High Profile Partnerships”

Entrepreneur – “How to Successfully Collaborate with a Larger Business Partner”

Vero – “How to Growth Hack Using Partnerships: An Online Marketing Strategy”

Perception IT – “Major Things to Know About Entry-Level Business Development &

Partnerships”

Partnership Considerations

Inc. – “14 Legal Tips for Starting Up”

LexisNexis – “How Much Should a Startup Pay in Legal Fees?”

Inc. – “4 Online Legal Resources that Limit Your Startup’s Need for an Attorney”

Forbes – “Startups That Seek Legal Advice Early Can Avoid ‘Soul-Crushing’ Mistakes”

Legal Advice for Entrepreneurs

Quora – “As a Startup CEO, What Is Your Favorite Productivity Hack?”

Kyle Van Pelt – “This Experiment Could Change My Life Forever”

The Payroll Blog – “22 Powerful Productivity Hacks for Small

Businesses”

MyCrowd – “Top 10 Productivity Hacks for Startups”

Personal & Business Productivity

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Resource Library.

Growth Hackers – “What are Your Go-To Task Management Productivity Tools?”

Siege Media – “750 Popular Subreddits Categorized by Industry and Submission

Type”

Soundest – “Ultimate List of 99 Email Marketing Resources”

Autosend – “13 Marketing Tools for Data-Driven Marketers”

Leadin – “Top 3 WordPress Keyword Research Plugins”

Conversion XL – “10 Google Analytics Reports That Tell You Where Your Site is

Leaking Money”

Tools & Resources

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Resource Library.

For more ways to increase your traffic and grow your business check out our books:

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