See the 500 Startups "Distro Dojo" growth hacking process - tested with dozens of companies worldwide. And find out what makes the perfect growth hacker!

1. Startup Growth &
MASS Distribution
@500Startups #DistroDojo
Sign up for exclusive office hours with 500
Startups
500.co/hours

2. This Evening’s Sponsors

3. Tonight’s Agenda
Matt Lerner – 6:00 Nilan Peris – 6:35
Susan Su – 7:10 Andy Young – 7:45
Is Growth Hacking Bullshit? Getting to Traction
Email Marketing Fundamentals Analytics for Startups
• Partner, 500 Startups London
• Built & ran growth teams @ PayPal
• Growth at 3 startups
• VP Growth @ Transferwise
• VP Growth @ Housetrip
• Speaker, mentor & advisor
• Distro Partner @ 500 Startups
• Head of Marketing @ AppSumo
• Founder: Emailforstartups.com
• EIR @ 500 Startups London
• Head of UK&I @ Stripe
• Co-Founder @ GroupSpaces
8:20 – Q&A 8:45 – Networking

4. Overview of the London Distro Dojo
Who:
• Companies with a live/GA product and happy/paying
customers (typically post-seed)
• Ready to focus on growth!
• Industry agnostic: SAAS, ecom, mobile, B2B, B2C...
What:
• Investment from 500 Startups, $150K - $250K
• Intensive 12-week program (1 month in-residence)
• Covers all aspects of growth (product, pricing, lead gen
& nurture, sales, analytics & tracking, conversion
optimization, SEO, SEM, content marketing, retargeting,
display, email, referrals, PR)
When?
• Next batch starts Feb 1. Applications are by referral only.

5. Is Growth Hacking Bullshit?
Matt Lerner
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6. Agenda
! Well, is it?
! Our Process
! The Mindset
! Conclusion
! Q&A
Download This Deck @MattHLerner

7. Is Growth Hacking Bullshit?

8. Is Growth Hacking Bullshit?
! Hotmail
! PayPal
! Twitter
! YouTube
! Dropbox
! Facebook
! LinkedIn
! Air BnB
! Zynga
! LivingSocial
! Instagram
! MoveOn.org
! Pinterest
! MySpace
! Hubspot
! Mint.com
! Groupon
! Whatsapp
! Snapchat
! Meerkat
! Quora

9. “Growth hackers are a hybrid of marketer and coder,
one who looks at the traditional question of ‘How do I
get customers for my product?’
Andrew Chen

10. Defining Growth

11. “A hacker is one who enjoys
the intellectual challenge of
creatively overcoming and
circumventing limitations of
systems.”
Verna Gehring
The Internet in Public Life

12. If you Only Remember One Thing…
! A collection of tactics
! Focused on getting clicks, views or signups
Growth Hacking is a mindset and a
process that run deep into the funnel.

13. Our Process
1. Clarify your goals
2. Choose your key metric
3. Understand your customer &
product market fit
4. Understand the system
5. Generate Ideas
6. Test & Iterate
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14. Our Process - Goals
1. Clarify your goals
2. Choose your key metric
3. Understand your customer &
product market fit
4. Understand the system
5. Generate Ideas
6. Test & Iterate
What is the long-term
customer goal?
Where in the funnel should
we focus now?

15. Growth: Make Hockey Sticks
Acquire
(Signups)
Activate
(Users)
Activity
(Engaged Users)
Retention
(Churn)
Referrals
Revenue
Like a Pirate
“AAARRRGH!”

16. Our Process – Metrics
1. Clarify your goals
2. Choose your key metric
3. Understand your customer &
product market fit
4. Understand the system
5. Generate Ideas
6. Test & Iterate
1. Does it measure the
thing you’re trying to do?
2. Can it be measured
quickly?
3. Deep enough in the
funnel?
4. Does this create
perverse incentives?
5. Causation or correlation?

17. Our Process – Customers
1. Clarify your goals
2. Choose your key metric
3. Understand your customer
& product market fit
4. Understand the system
5. Generate Ideas
6. Test & Iterate
Understand and document
your product’s appeal to your
customers.
It will drive your marketing
strategy.
The “Sean Ellis” test.

18. The Process – Systems Thinking
1. Clarify your goals
2. Choose your key metric
3. Understand your customer &
product market fit
4. Understand the system
5. Generate Ideas
6. Test & Iterate
1. What are people’s incentives
and how do we align with them?
2. Are there 80/20’s or network
effects you can exploit?
3. Where are the viral loop
opportunities?
4. Any existing two-sided
platforms we can scale on?
(e.g. eBay, Craigslist, Facebook,
Streetlife?)

19. The Process – Brainstorm
1. Clarify your goals
2. Choose your key metric
3. Understand your customer &
product market fit
4. Understand the system
5. Generate Ideas
6. Test & Iterate
1. What are the right
channels?
2. Is the onboarding
experience frictionless?
3. Where can you add virality?
4. Who else has done
something like this before,
and how?

20. The Process – Execution!
1. Clarify your goals
2. Choose your key metric
3. Understand your customer &
product market fit
4. Understand the system
5. Generate Ideas
6. Test & Iterate
Start right away (before step 3)
with the easy + impactful ideas.
Work on big stuff, a mix of short-
and long-term projects.
Weekly KPI & Backlog Review:
• What worked well?
• Any surprises?
• Which numbers do and don’t make
intuitive sense?
• Are we measuring this right?
• What new hypotheses emerge?
• What should we test next?

21. The Mindset
! Fucks up constantly: 2/3 of tests fail. Failure " learning! Embrace failure!
! It’s a science: Systematic thinker, curious, keen observers, understands
experimental design, causation and correlation.
! It’s an art: Obsessed with simplifying the customer journey.
! Systems thinker: Use existing momentum, find the lever points. Always
looking for the 80/20’s or better.
! Curious: Ask a lot of questions, ask great questions.
! Optimistic: Comfortable with ambiguity, hopeful but not patient.
! Irreverent: Cross-disciplinary, would sooner ask forgiveness than
permission. (Move fast, break things).
! Tenacious: Persistent with a bias towards action.

22. Conclusions
! This is definitely a thing. But…
! Many of the best are not marketers
! Includes the whole (pirate) funnel
! Not tactics, it’s a process and a mindset
– Art and a science, causation & correlation
– Understand customers & system, look for angles & leverage
! Don’t just hustle, work smart
! Test & measure, test & measure, test & measure

23. Any Questions?
@500Startups #DistroDojo
Sign up for exclusive office hours with 500
Startups
500.co/hours
Download This Deck @MattHLerner