Drive Growth by Picking the Right Lane — A Customer Acquisition Playbook for Consumer Startups

You can turn the retention loop into a sustainable growth loop if you are able to utilize derivative assets created through usage by your existing customers to attract new customers. Content and data are typically the common propellants here. Some ways of building out this engine include: User-generated content (e.g., YouTube, Pinterest) Reviews (e

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New essay:

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These days I’m spending a lot of my time with very early stage startups (yes, as part of the program at a16z to invest up to $1M into each, called a16z speedrun -- speedrun.a16z.com) and as part of this, I spend a lot of time talking abou... See more

Audience: the number of people you’re able to connect with who have the problem your product solves. Motivation: the level of motivation your audience has to get over the inherent switching costs involved in giving your product a try. Value: your ability to deliver on this promised value as quickly and consistently as possible. Stickiness: your abi

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the takeaway here is that your primary growth rocket needs to have a flywheel or growth loop in its engine that allows it to sustain itself.” “A growth loop?” Lisa wonders. “Would that be like reinvesting revenue from existing customers to buy ads to acquire new customers?” “That’s exactly right,” responds Mary. “However, there are certain conditio

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