Is Growth Hacking Bullshit?

Startup Growth & MASS Distribution

@500Startups #DistroDojo

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This Evening’s Sponsors

Tonight’s Agenda Matt Lerner – 6:00 Nilan Peris – 6:35

Susan Su – 7:10 Andy Young – 7:45

Is Growth Hacking Bullshit? Getting to Traction

Email Marketing Fundamentals Analytics for Startups

•  Partner, 500 Startups London •  Built & ran growth teams @ PayPal •  Growth at 3 startups

•  VP Growth @ Transferwise •  VP Growth @ Housetrip •  Speaker, mentor & advisor

•  Distro Partner @ 500 Startups •  Head of Marketing @ AppSumo •  Founder: Emailforstartups.com

•  EIR @ 500 Startups London •  Head of UK&I @ Stripe •  Co-Founder @ GroupSpaces

8:20 – Q&A 8:45 – Networking

Overview of the London Distro Dojo Who: •  Companies with a live/GA product and happy/paying

customers (typically post-seed) •  Ready to focus on growth! •  Industry agnostic: SAAS, ecom, mobile, B2B, B2C... What: •  Investment from 500 Startups, $150K - $250K •  Intensive 12-week program (1 month in-residence) •  Covers all aspects of growth (product, pricing, lead gen

& nurture, sales, analytics & tracking, conversion optimization, SEO, SEM, content marketing, retargeting, display, email, referrals, PR)

When? •  Next batch starts Feb 1. Applications are by referral only.

Is Growth Hacking Bullshit? Matt Lerner

Download This Deck @MattHLerner

Agenda !  Well, is it? !  Our Process !  The Mindset !  Conclusion !  Q&A


Is Growth Hacking Bullshit?

Is Growth Hacking Bullshit? !  Hotmail !  PayPal !  Twitter !  YouTube !  Dropbox !  Facebook !  LinkedIn

!  Air BnB !  Zynga !  LivingSocial !  Instagram !  MoveOn.org !  Pinterest !  MySpace

!  Hubspot !  Mint.com !  Groupon !  Whatsapp !  Snapchat !  Meerkat !  Quora

“Growth hackers are a hybrid of marketer and coder, one who looks at the traditional question of ‘How do I get customers for my product?’

Andrew Chen

Defining Growth

“A hacker is one who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming and circumventing limitations of systems.”

Verna Gehring The Internet in Public Life

If you Only Remember One Thing… !  A collection of tactics !  Focused on getting clicks, views or signups

Growth Hacking is a mindset and a process that run deep into the funnel.

Our Process 1.  Clarify your goals 2.  Choose your key metric 3.  Understand your customer &

product market fit 4.  Understand the system 5.  Generate Ideas 6.  Test & Iterate


Our Process - Goals 1.  Clarify your goals 2.  Choose your key metric 3.  Understand your customer &


What is the long-term customer goal? Where in the funnel should we focus now?

Growth: Make Hockey Sticks Acquire

(Signups)

Activate (Users)

Activity (Engaged Users)

Retention (Churn)

Referrals Revenue

Like a Pirate

“AAARRRGH!”

Our Process – Metrics 1.  Clarify your goals 2.  Choose your key metric 3.  Understand your customer &


1.  Does it measure the thing you’re trying to do?

2. Can it be measured quickly?

3. Deep enough in the funnel?

4. Does this create perverse incentives?

5. Causation or correlation?

Our Process – Customers 1.  Clarify your goals 2.  Choose your key metric 3.  Understand your customer

& product market fit 4.  Understand the system 5.  Generate Ideas 6.  Test & Iterate

Understand and document your product’s appeal to your customers. It will drive your marketing strategy.

The “Sean Ellis” test.

The Process – Systems Thinking 1.  Clarify your goals 2.  Choose your key metric 3.  Understand your customer &


1.  What are people’s incentives and how do we align with them?

2.  Are there 80/20’s or network effects you can exploit?

3.  Where are the viral loop opportunities?

4.  Any existing two-sided platforms we can scale on? (e.g. eBay, Craigslist, Facebook, Streetlife?)

The Process – Brainstorm 1.  Clarify your goals 2.  Choose your key metric 3.  Understand your customer &


1.  What are the right channels?

2.  Is the onboarding experience frictionless?

3. Where can you add virality?

4. Who else has done something like this before, and how?

The Process – Execution! 1.  Clarify your goals 2.  Choose your key metric 3.  Understand your customer &


Start right away (before step 3) with the easy + impactful ideas.

Work on big stuff, a mix of short- and long-term projects.

Weekly KPI & Backlog Review:

•  What worked well? •  Any surprises? •  Which numbers do and don’t make

intuitive sense? •  Are we measuring this right? •  What new hypotheses emerge? •  What should we test next?

The Mindset !  Fucks up constantly: 2/3 of tests fail. Failure " learning! Embrace failure! !  It’s a science: Systematic thinker, curious, keen observers, understands

experimental design, causation and correlation. !  It’s an art: Obsessed with simplifying the customer journey. !  Systems thinker: Use existing momentum, find the lever points. Always

looking for the 80/20’s or better. !  Curious: Ask a lot of questions, ask great questions. !  Optimistic: Comfortable with ambiguity, hopeful but not patient. !  Irreverent: Cross-disciplinary, would sooner ask forgiveness than

permission. (Move fast, break things). !  Tenacious: Persistent with a bias towards action.

Conclusions !  This is definitely a thing. But… !  Many of the best are not marketers !  Includes the whole (pirate) funnel !  Not tactics, it’s a process and a mindset

–  Art and a science, causation & correlation –  Understand customers & system, look for angles & leverage

!  Don’t just hustle, work smart !  Test & measure, test & measure, test & measure

Any Questions?

@500Startups #DistroDojo

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