10 Growth Tactics That Never Work | Elena Verna
Everyone is just so eager to build a mine — grow their team, set up processes, define OKRs, etc... — because 1/ they feel like that's what successful businesses do 2/ it’s a clear and easy task, whereas looking for product / market fit is hard and ambiguous.
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One of the most common types of advice we give at Y Combinator is to do things that don’t scale …. The most common unscalable thing founders have to do at the start is to recruit users manually. Nearly all startups have to. You can’t wait for users to come to you. You have to go out and get them. There are two reasons founders resist going out and
... See moreAndrew Chen • The Cold Start Problem: Using Network Effects to Scale Your Product
The classic way to burn through cash is by hiring a lot of people.
This bites you twice: in addition to increasing your costs, it slows
you down—so money that's getting consumed faster has to last
longer. Most hackers understand why that happens; Fred Brooks
explained it in The Mythical Man-Month.We have three general suggestions about hiring: (a) don'... See more
This bites you twice: in addition to increasing your costs, it slows
you down—so money that's getting consumed faster has to last
longer. Most hackers understand why that happens; Fred Brooks
explained it in The Mythical Man-Month.We have three general suggestions about hiring: (a) don'... See more
The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups
#ExplosiveGrowthTip 49: Don’t spend significant money on marketing until your one-day and thirty-day retention is well above average for your industry.
Cliff Lerner • Explosive Growth: A Few Things I Learned While Growing My Startup To 100 Million Users & Losing $78 Million
The opportunity costs of pushing for growth too soon are twofold. First, you’re spending precious money and time on the wrong efforts (i.e., on promoting a product that no one wants); and second, rather than turning early customers into fans, you’re making them disillusioned, even angry, critics. Remember that viral word of mouth can work two ways;
... See more