The Racecar Growth Framework

Turbo Boosts...include things like:1) PR2) Events3) Brand marketing campaigns

Without [fuel], even the most optimized engine won’t run. The type of fuel required is specific to the type of growth engine you’re running:- Paid marketing and sales engines primarily need capital, which can be invested in ads or salespeople. This is why payback is an important metric to measure marketing and sales engines: it determines how long ... See more

The same components that help a car drive faster are also the components of your Growth Model:⚙️ The (Growth) EngineSelf-sustaining growth loops that drive most of your growth (e.g. virality, performance marketing, content, and sales).💥 Turbo boostsOne-off events that accelerate growth temporarily but don’t last (e.g. PR, events, Super Bowl ads).�... See more

The intensity of the pull is a factor of the fit (how good your product is at solving the user’s problem) AND initial market size (is it niche or broad).

"In the early days at Thumbtack, so much of our growth was coming from SEO that it made sense for it to dominate our growth roadmap. We spent disproportionate time generating content, earning links, and optimizing conversion on SEO landing pages. Over time, however, it became clear that we were running into diminishing returns from these efforts, a... See more

"Most mistakes in growth are using the wrong growth method at the wrong time. You can think about where your product is on the S-curve of growth to understand where you should be focused. Transitioning to each stage gracefully is what separates great growth teams from the average." - Casey Winters, CPO @ Eventbrite

Lubricants...optimize the efficiency of your engine. There are three broad categories of lubricants:1) Conversion: Increasing the rate at which customers sign up for your product. This includes optimizing clickthrough rate on ads, the effectiveness of sales people, and increasing signup funnel conversion rates.2) Activation: Increasing the rate at ... See more

"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

companies grow primarily through four possible Growth Engines:1) Performance marketing: FB, AdWords, TV, etc.2) Virality: Word-of-mouth, referrals, inviting friends, etc.3) Content: SEO, shareable videos, or newsletters, etc.4) Sales: Outbound (and inbound) salespeople.

There are two additional types of growth engines that we’ve seen — Partnerships ... See more