10 Growth Tactics That Never Work | Elena Verna
1. Most founders are bad at growth, so if you're amazing at it, the advantage is significant.
Consider: Most startups die not because founders are bad or products suck, but because they couldn't figure out how to get anyone to try them.
Julian Shapirox.comWhat’s the biggest mistake that founders make in hiring their Head of Growth? In my opinion, it’s when the founders are trying to abdicate responsibility for their growth efforts, and hoping that a magical hire solves everything. The problem is, a startup’s growth is so fundamental that the founders have to take it on themselves. The buck stops at ... See more
Andrew Chen • What to look for when you’re hiring a Head of Growth at andrewchen
A startup that prematurely targets a growth goal often ends up making a nebulous product that some users sort of like and papering over this with ‘growth hacking’. That sort of works—at least, it will fool investors for awhile until they start digging into retention numbers—but eventually the music stops.
Sam Altman • Before Growth
"This is one of the most common mistakes among new product teams when I ask "How does your product grow?" The answer is typically a long list of turbo boosts. It is typically because there is no hypothesis on what the growth engine is, and as a result they are compensating by trying to cobble together a lot of little things." - Brian Balfour (Found... See more
reforge.com • The Racecar Growth Framework — Reforge
Investors advising early-stage teams should avoid pushing for growth ahead of product/market fit. As an industry, we all know that this ends in disaster, yet the pressure for premature growth is still all too common. Startups need time and space to find their fit and launch the right way.