I have come very close to a few very big wins in my career. Close, is the key word in that sentence. My first company was a college specific social network prior to Facebook existing. My second company was in virtual goods a year before social gaming really existed. Both were in the right place at the right time, but neither turned into “home runs.”
I could probably come up with many reasons for the wins. Intelligence, ambition, luck? I could also probably come up with a lot of excuses for the misses. Lack of knowledge, wrong environment, bad investors, competitors?
Honestly though I think that it was none of those reasons. In hindsight, everything boiled down to one factor...
The topic of growth has been more polarizing than I would have ever expected. The animosity largely surrounds the use of the term “growth hacking.” It is so high in fact that I debated whether I should even publish this post. Growth is a maturing topic though. I think the way that we progress is by having this conversation and focusing on the right things.
As growth continues to become a popular subject, more content on the topic is being published. I think this is great. The more quality content out there on the subject, the better for the startup community. But as I read a lot of this content and watch others react to it I cringe on the inside because I know many of the readers are going to start chasing down incorrect paths. Let me explain...
I was recently in my home state of Michigan for a wedding with all of my college buddies. One night we went to the casino downtown Detroit. I’m a sucker for playing Blackjack. Unfortunately I did not win. But while playing Blackjack and “earning” my free drinks my nerd brain started to churn and I realized that Blackjack strategy and Growth strategy have something in common.
There are key differences between the traction phase and the growth phase of a company. Understanding what stage you are at, helps you focus on the right goals, metrics, channels, and team structure. But how do you know when you are ready to transition from one phase to the other?
The goals, metrics, channels, focus, team structure, everything evolves and changes as you move through these the three phases of growth. Knowing where you are in this path helps you understand what you should be spending your time on. Focusing on the right tactics at the right time helps move you through this path efficiently and successfully.
It is massive, enormous, monumental, maybe even the second coming. Whatever you want to call it, we are currently experiencing more change in the marketing ecosystem then we have in the past 10 years (maybe ever). Are you paying attention?
A year and a half ago my buddy Noah Kagan and I were walking down the streets of New York trying almost every hole in the wall bar, taco, and chinese place. Somewhere between the Kung Pao Pastrami from Mission Chinese and a pitcher of Mimosa’s we started discussing the question, what were books that had changed our lives? Not just good books, but ones that permanently altered our perspective on an important element of our lives.
Back in May Gmail released a new feature in beta called email quick actions. The purpose is to provide a really simple UI to take action within an email rather than clicking out to a different experience to complete that action. The initial use cases Gmail has launched are RSVPs, Reviews, and one click actions. This change seems simple on the surface, but I believe it could evolve into a very powerful growth tactic. As a result, it makes my list of growth tactics to keep your eye on. Here is why…
I started my career out as a “product guy.” But about 4 years ago I realized that product was a small piece of the startup puzzle. I became fascinated with how products were growing. Thus, my journey on learning growth and customer acquisition began. Here is the step by step guide I wish I had when I started to learn customer acquisition.
