7 Growth Lessons from the 500 Startups Distro Team - Seoul Startup:Con 2016

Andy Young // @andyy // [email protected]

7 Growth Lessonsfrom the 500 Startups

Andy Young, EIR @ 500

@andyy


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train post-seed, pre-A companies to do better Growth Marketing

give them the Funding to do it



So WTF is this Growth Hacking thing?sounds like some kinda bullshit to me..



Let’s talk about something REAL


Growth Hacking..? Technical Marketing..?

Call it what you want, teams at high-growth companies are scaling to millions of users without major use of any traditional mass advertising/marketing approaches.


● SEO● Content Marketing● Performance Marketing (Paid search & display, retargeting)● Conversion Optimisation (CRO) & A/B Testing● User testing & UX● Viral Loops● Strategic Pricing● …

The Growth Hacker’s Toolbox


Some examples..


Technical Hacks

AirBnB built on top of Craigslist


Product Hacks

Dropbox succeeded with a Referral Scheme


Viral Hacks

Hotmail put

“P.s. I love you. Get your free email at Hotmail.”

in the footer of every email.


Partnership Hacks

Uber partnered with Telcos to get their App promoted/installed on phones


What Hacks are NOT


There are loads of great tips and hacks out thereSubscribe to 500’s “DISTROSNACK” newsletter!

But following all these cool tips will not itself bring success.

What Hacks are NOT

http://500.co/distrosnack


Things with big impact:

★ Top of funnel○ How to reach HUGE new audiences in a cost-effective way

★ Middle of funnel○ Attracting and drawing people deeper into engaging with you

★ Bottom of funnel○ Close to the $$$ - convert higher % and simply make more money!

Things that WILL make a difference


Growth Hacking is finding growth that is:

➔ Measurable➔ Repeatable➔ Scalable

Sean Ellis: “Growth Hacking is experiment-driven marketing”

It’s a mindset.

Growth Hacking Truths


➔ Pre-launch: test proposition with customers; learn what you should build.

➔ Beta: fix your shitty product until people like it and stick around/give you €€€

➔ Growth: time to scale. So you got here by doing Things That Didn't Scale - awesome, now it's time to operationalise all that stuff while you explore and build out new acquisition channels.

➔ Scale: optimise, optimise, optimise; keep on top of changing channel effectiveness and emerging opportunities; start to compliment your growth hacking efforts with above-the-line marketing.

Stages of Growth


7 Growth Lessonsfrom the Distro Dojo


#1 - nail down yourvalue proposition

& messaging


- 10,000 ft view exercise -

- bit.ly/10kftview -

http://bit.ly/10kftview


� What product/service, for which target market?

� Why do our customers love us? Why do they choose us over the competition?

� How do we make money?

� What is our primary way to get new customers?

� Our business will become a huge, runaway success if…

� During the next 3 months we need to focus on…

� What ONE target do we want to hit?

10,000 ft viewbit.ly

/10kftvi

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#2 - get Product/Market fitbefore you try and grow



Early stage Growth stage

Goal Product/Market fitScalable, repeatable, predictable growth

Metric Engagement Growth rate

Primary Data Qualitative Quantitative

Growth Strategy Hustle

Build a growth machine


#3 - build a Modelto understand your business


Andy Young // @andyy // [email protected]/

kpi-sheet

http://bit.ly/kpi-sheet



Not an operational dashboard:metrics related to growth

1. Identify top-level KPI2. Add nuance3. Add drivers

4. Add funnel for these drivers

Template Google Sheet: bit.ly/kpi-sheet



#4 - identify Leversand prioritise your backlog


Levers:things you can push

to get growth


Identify yourOne Metric That Matters (OMTM)to get everyone pushingin the same direction


Prioritise using ICE framework:

-Impact-Chance of Success-Effort (time/resources)


#5 - drive growth viaexperimentationand learnings


“Learning is the essential unit of progress for startups”


Make predictions in advance!


#6 - it’s a Mindset


The world is constantly changing

(channel efficiency/effectiveness, etc)

Experimentation & learnings

Build a machine

Naturally curious

Motivated by helping the customer achieve their goals

Growth Mindset


#7 - maintain discipline with a Weekly Growth Meeting


Agenda

1. Review KPIs2. What did we learn last week?

3. What experiments are we running this week?

No work is to be done during the meeting!

Weekly Growth Meeting


BONUS #8Talk to your users


User testing script - cheers Steve Krug!www.sensible.com/downloads/test-script.pdf


Takeaways


#1 - nail down your value proposition & messaging

#2 - get Product/Market fit before you try and grow

#3 - build a model to understand your business

#4 - identify Levers and prioritise your backlog

#5 - drive growth via experimentation & learnings

#6 - it’s a mindset

#7 - maintain discipline with a weekly growth meeting

Talk to your users!


Thanks, & good luck!


● 10,000ft view worksheet● Bryan Balfour: The Scientific Method: How to Design &

Track Viral Growth Experiments● Dave McClure's Startup Metrics for Pirates● Eric Ries’s Three Engines of Growth● My deck on Analytics for Startups● 500 Startups Accelerator Marketing Hell Week:

videos, templates & goodness● DISTROSNACK: daily growth hacks

Further references..

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N7cH_LdBnzrCkurSXUEYMQoDAB0f2yqQqQ94LvNxGfM/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N7cH_LdBnzrCkurSXUEYMQoDAB0f2yqQqQ94LvNxGfM/edit?usp=sharing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0APJlxMjPw4



http://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/startup-metrics-for-pirates-long-version

http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/09/three-drivers-of-growth-for-your.html

http://www.slideshare.net/andyjy/how-do-i-analytics-a-practical-guide-for-pragmatic-startups

http://500.co/marketing-hell-week-batch-16/

http://500.co/marketing-hell-week-batch-16/

