Unlocking Growth
Building a sustainable growth engine
with the new rules of marketing.
“Most startups don’t fail at building a
product. They fail at acquiring customers.”
– Gabriel Weinberg
Startup Growth Pyramid
Growth
Stacking the Odds
Product/Market Fit
Source: Sean Ellis
Growth
Stacking the Odds
Product/Market Fit
Source: Sean Ellis
Get to Product
Market Fit First
What is Product/
Market Fit?
A large group wants/needs your product – it’s
a ‘must have’.
“Focus obsessively on getting to product/
market fit.”
– Mark Andreessen
Do you have PMF?
Ask “How would you feel if you could no
longer use the product?”
Source: Sean Ellis
“Very Disappointed”
0 – 25%
Keep burn low, engage, iterate
26 – 39%
Try repositioning, retargeting
40 – 100%
Proceed up pyramid
After PMF,
transition to
growth
Growth
Stacking the Odds
Product/Market Fit
Source: Sean Ellis
Race to scale
Instrument your product
Activate users
Increase exposure—the race to scale
Instrument your
product
Source data (referral source in user record)
Event & cohorts
Conversion rates
Engagement/retention
Lifetime value
Dave McClure’s
Pirate Metrics
Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Revenue
Referral
Find your metric
that matters
“x people did x searches in past week”
“y people visited my site x times last month”
“z users send n messages via my app each day”
Source: Josh Elman
Build a Value
Delivery Engine
Hook/
Promise
Build a must-have product
Understand must-have
experience (MHX)
Must-Have
experience
Calibrate hook & promise
messaging
Optimize flows to deliver MHX
Source: Sean Ellis
Steps for value
delivery engine
Understand
MHX
Macro
Optimization
Segment/
Personalize
Optimize Value
Delivery Engine
Successful optimization process
Funnel
Analytics
Test
Variations
Insights
Hook/
Promise
Goals
Max % that reach MH experience
Build desire, reduce friction
Must-Have
experience
Desire – Friction =
Conversion Rate
Source: Sean Ellis
PIE test
prioritization
Potential
Importance
Ease
Source: Wider Funnel
A/B test combos
Messaging
Flows
Hooks based on
intent/pain
Flows that reduce
friction
Promise based on
MHX
Flows that frontload
MHX
Clear description
of solution