This document provides guidance on preparing a startup for high growth. It discusses focusing efforts on identifying the core value the product offers and testing ways to help more people experience that value. Examples are given of startups that achieved certain growth metrics like user replies or course completions. Common mistakes that can dampen growth like a lack of focus, premature scaling, and prioritizing excitement over effectiveness are also covered. Tools and resources are recommended for areas like acquisition, activation, retention, and analytics to help measure and improve growth.

1. PREPARING YOUR STARTUP
FOR HIGH GROWTH
PREPARED FOR: IGNITE MANCHESTER COHORT 1
BY: ANDREW ALLSOP

2. I’ve worked with...
Find me...
allsop.andrew@gmail.com @andrewallsop imaa.io (under construction!)
https://medium.com/@AndrewAllsop
http://meetup.com/Manchester-Startup-Growth/

3. WHAT THIS IS
Scaleable
Repeatable
Basis in marketing
Driven by product
Inspired by data

4. WHAT THIS IS
A practical process to...
Learn
Prioritise
& Execute
...ways to help MORE PEOPLE experience MORE VALUE
from your product.

5. WHAT THIS IS
Identify the core value you offer more than
anyone else - your A-ha!/WOW moment
(ask your users, market | predictive metrics)
Test, measure and experiment with ways to
make more people experience it

6. Examples
Bspotted
got more than 3 replies in their first 7 days
Lumici
Had more than 20% of their courses completed
Theluxe
come back and repurchase after 30 days
ArtWishList
Sold more than 3 pieces of art
WeGym
Get replies to 4 of their messages after 30 days
Global Dorm
Invited their membership lists
Recrvt
Successfully placed a candidate in their first
month
MuaMua
Received 3 or more bookings a month
Flyr
% of searches that resulted in bookings
Socialy
Bought/sold 3 pieces of content
The number of users who...

7. WHY GROWTH
The expectations for a high growth
software company have changed

8. Bootstrap
Angel
Seed
Series
Series/IPO/
Acquisition
TIME
USERS/REVENUE

9. WHY GROWTH
Popular channels get crowded very fast

11. Ad Spend by Consumer

12. WHY GROWTH
Different set of skills than traditional
marketing

13. PRODUCT
TECHANALYTICS
SKILLS
ACQUISITION
ACTIVATION
RETENTION
REVENUE
REFERRAL

14. WHY GROWTH
Ultimately...
97% of startups fail because they don’t
have a market, not because of
poor engineering

15. Origins

16. Buy some AdWords
Big TechCrunch launch
Hire a PR firm and a VP of Marketing

17. Result
~100,000 users
Cost Per Acquisition: £300
Customer Lifetime Value: < £100
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/gueste94e4c/dropbox-startup-lessons-learned-3836587/32-Results_ulliSeptember_2008_100000_registered

19. 2-sided Incentive

21. Results
15 months later: 4,000,000 users
over 55% from referral, viral and sharing features

24. These aren’t anomalies

29. But don’t get caught up trying to get
that one special tactic. Focus on
execution and learning. It will come.

30. THREE MISTAKES THAT
WILL DAMPEN YOUR
POTENTIAL TO GROW

31. 1
LACK OF FOCUS

32. Hiring a growth hacker
Lack Of Focus

33. “The only way to tackle
growth is to get the whole
team focussed on it”
Sean Ellis

34. Lack of Focus
LAW OF CONTRACTION

35. YOU CAN BE ANYTHING TO
ANYONE BUT YOU CAN’T BE
EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE
-juststartupthings-
Lack Of Focus

36. Lack Of Focus
Not choosing/discovering a
market

38. 2
Trying To Scale
Prematurely

39. Traction Transition Growth
Goal
Product-Market Fit
Discovering Growth
Levers
Turning Up Growth
Levers
Metric Retention Growth Rate
CPA = LTV, Payback < 3 months
Growth Rate
CPA < LTV, Payback > 3 months
Volume
Find a steady stream Increase the flow Release the Kraken
Channels Experiment with ⅔ in
order to find one that
works
1 > 1
Optimization Macro Macro + Micro Micro
Organization
Scaling Prematurely

40. Scaling Prematurely

41. WHY GROWTH
Ultimately...
97% of startups fail because they don’t
have a market, not because of
poor engineering

42. 3
Putting Excitement
Before Effectiveness

44. Startup≠Normal Business
Excitement Before Effectiveness

45. THE PROCESS

46. THE PROCESS
MODEL
BENCHMARK
FOCUS
BRAINSTORM & BACKLOG
PRIORITISE
TEST
ANALYSE
SYSTEMISE

47. MODEL
A quantified model of your company
Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics*
The Lean Marketing Funnel
Signups, Data In, Subscribed, Churned
Spreadsheets, Mixpanel or Amplitude

50. Fill up the backlog in your growth Trello Board

51. PRIORITISE
ICE score
IMPACT - WHAT WILL THE IMPACT BE IF THIS WORKS?
CONFIDENCE - HOW CONFIDENT AM I THIS WILL WORK?
EFFORT - HOW MUCH RESOURCES ARE REQUIRED?
Use your growth documents to write up
your hypothesis

52. HYPOTHESIS
BECAUSE WE SAW (DATA/FEEDBACK), WE
EXPECT THAT (CHANGE) WILL CAUSE
(IMPACT). WE WILL MEASURE THIS USING
(METRIC)

53. TEST
What is the least resource intensive way to gather data about the
hypothesis?
Use your growth documents to write up
your design so anyone can understand
the context and improve learnings

54. ANALYSIS
Was this experiment a success/failure?
What was the impact?
WHY did I see the results I did?
update
me

55. SYSTEMIZE
Take feedback
Create new experiments
Productise/Systemise/Playbook-ise

56. WITHOUT A PROCESS
SUCCESS = LUCK

57. WITH A PROCESS
CREATIVITY + RESOURCES
TIME
CHANCE of
SUCCESS =

59. Tools
Acquisition
Advertising / Retargeting: Adroll, Dataxu, Facebook, Twitter, Google Adwords,
BuySellAds, PerfectAudience
Attribution: Appsflyer, Attribution, Convertro, Mobile App Tracking, Adjust
Conversion optimization: Optimizely, Leanplum, Taplytics, VWO, Formisimo
Activation
Marketing automation: Autopilot, Iterable, Marketo, Customer.io, Vero
Funnel analysis: Mixpanel, Amplitude, Indicative, KISSmetrics
Heatmapping: CrazyEgg, Inspectlet, LuckyOrange, MouseFlow, MouseStats, Navilytics,
FullStory

60. Retention
Marketing automation: Autopilot, Iterable, Marketo, Customer.io, Vero
Push notifications: Outbound.io, Kahuna, Leanplum
Customer communication: Intercom, Appboy
NPS, surveys: Delighted, Qualaroo
Customer success: Zendesk, Freshdesk, Gainsight, Totango, Uservoice
Churn Insight: Framed.io
Revenue
CRM: Salesforce, Pipedrive, Hubspot
Ecommerce analytics: Baremetrics
Referral
Referral Management: SaaSquatch, Talkable, Extole

61. Feedback, Comms & Analytics Tools -
Qualitative
The tools in this category include:
● Surveys/NPS: AskNicely, Promoter, Uservoice, Satismeter, Wootric, Qualaroo,
WebEngage, Delighted
● LiveChat: LiveChat, Olark, SnapEngage, Userlike, Intercom
● Heat Mapping: CrazyEgg, Inspectlet, LuckyOrange, MouseFlow, MouseStats, Navilytics,
FullStory

62. Feedback, Comms & Analytics Tools -
Quantitative
Web Analytics: Google Analytics
● Behavioral Analytics: Mixpanel, Amplitude, Indicative, Keen.IO, Heap
● A/B Testing: Optimizely, Visual Website Optimizer
● Real-time Analytics: GoSquared, Chartbeat

63. RECOMMENDED STARTER STACK
Google Tag Manager
Google Analytics
Segment.com**
Mixpanel/Amplitude
Optimizely
HotJar
AdWords/Facebook/Twitter

64. TO DO by Next Month
Install the starter stack or equivalent
Build a quantified model of your company
Choose one area of the AARRR funnel that you think is causing the biggest
bottleneck for your users
Brainstorm 20 ideas that could help improve it and include them in your
experiments backlog in Trello or Projects.GrowthHackers.com

65. Further Resources
Event Tracking Spec template
Growth Project Management Trello Board
Example Growth Documents
Quant. SaaS Framework spreadsheet
Quant. Marketplace Framework spreadsheet