Explosive Growth: A Few Things I Learned While Growing My Startup To 100 Million Users & Losing $78 Million

#ExplosiveGrowthTip 71: Raising debt can be very dangerous. Try to avoid it entirely, if possible.

The core product needs constant attention. If the core product is declining, as was the case for AYI, there’s always a new fire that needs to be put out. So, if resources are shared between the moneymaker and the new initiative, all the time and attention will go back to the core product to put out the ‘fire.’ It’s impossible to justify keeping peo

#ExplosiveGrowthTip 72: Focus on building solutions to problems, rather than building new products or features.

#ExplosiveGrowthTip 77: Have you and all your employees read Contagious, by Jonah Berger? If not, have everyone read it ASAP!

One big problem with online dating is that people lie too much about things like height, weight, how much hair they have, and other qualities. Photos could be posted from twenty years ago when someone was thirty pounds lighter or had a full head of hair.

The reason the first group of women I ran into at the bar said they were “playing Tinder” was most likely because Tinder’s CTA button asked, “Keep Playing?” It was a brilliantly shrewd use of language that made users think they were playing a game, rather than online dating.

#ExplosiveGrowthTip 29: If your largest source of revenue stopped paying you or disappeared, could your business survive for at least six months? Come up with a contingency plan now.

#ExplosiveGrowthTip 57: Don’t be afraid to test any idea, because you can rarely guess what will and what won’t work. Have you tested an idea recently that somebody from your customer service team was passionate about?

#ExplosiveGrowthTip 30: Revenue tests take several months to reveal their true impact and long-term ramifications on user growth and retention. Reaching conclusions too soon can be very damaging. Do you wait until your crucial tests reach statistical significance before reaching conclusions?