Growth lessons from the 500 Startups Distro Dojo

transcript

Andy Young // @andyy // andy@500.co

7 Growth Lessonsfrom the 500 Startups

Andy Young, EIR @ 500

@andyy

Hi, I’m Andy!@andyy

lor - da

bergmed

ia.com

train post-seed, pre-A companies to do better Growth Marketing

give them the Funding to do it

So WTF is this Growth Hacking thing?sounds like some kinda bullshit to me..

7 Growth Lessonsfrom the Distro Dojo

#1 - nail down yourvalue proposition

& messaging

- 10,000 ft view exercise -

- bit.ly/10kftview -

� What product/service, for which target market?

� Why do our customers love us? Why do they choose us over the competition?

� How do we make money?

� What is our primary way to get new customers?

� Our business will become a huge, runaway success if…

� During the next 3 months we need to focus on…

� What ONE target do we want to hit?

10,000 ft viewbit.ly

/10kftvi

#2 - get Product/Market fitbefore you try and grow

Early stage Growth stage

Goal Product/Market fitScalable, repeatable, predictable growth

Metric Engagement Growth rate

Primary Data Qualitative Quantitative

Growth Strategy Hustle

Build a growth machine

#3 - build a Modelto understand your business

Andy Young // @andyy // andy@500.cobit.ly/

kpi-sheet

Not an operational dashboard:metrics related to growth

1. Identify top-level KPI2. Add nuance3. Add drivers

4. Add funnel for these drivers

Template Google Sheet: bit.ly/kpi-sheet

#4 - identify Leversand prioritise your backlog

Levers:things you can push

to get growth

Identify yourOne Metric That Matters (OMTM)to get everyone pushingin the same direction

Prioritise using ICE framework:

-Impact-Chance of Success-Effort (time/resources)

#5 - drive growth viaexperimentationand learnings

“Learning is the essential unit of progress for startups”

Make predictions in advance!

#6 - it’s a Mindset

The world is constantly changing

(channel efficiency/effectiveness, etc)

Experimentation & learnings

Build a machine

Naturally curious

Motivated by helping the customer achieve their goals

Growth Mindset

#7 - maintain discipline with a Weekly Growth Meeting

Agenda

1. Review KPIs2. What did we learn last week?

3. What experiments are we running this week?

No work is to be done during the meeting!

Weekly Growth Meeting

BONUS #8Talk to your users

User testing script - cheers Steve Krug!www.sensible.com/downloads/test-script.pdf

Takeaways

#1 - nail down your value proposition & messaging

#2 - get Product/Market fit before you try and grow

#3 - build a model to understand your business

#4 - identify Levers and prioritise your backlog

#5 - drive growth via experimentation & learnings

#6 - it’s a mindset

#7 - maintain discipline with a weekly growth meeting

Talk to your users!

Thanks, & good luck!

● 10,000ft view worksheet● Bryan Balfour: The Scientific Method: How to Design &

Track Viral Growth Experiments● Dave McClure's Startup Metrics for Pirates● Eric Ries’s Three Engines of Growth● My deck on Analytics for Startups● 500 Startups Accelerator Marketing Hell Week:

videos, templates & goodness● DISTROSNACK: daily growth hacks

Further references..