Growth Hacking Oxford Inspires 2016

Is Growth Hacking Bullshit?

Matt Lerner Oxford Inspires 6 March, 2016

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/ About Matt Lerner

•  Marketing for 3 startups, one exit •  11 years Marketing & GM at PayPal •  Built & ran 5 Growth teams •  Mentored ~ 40 startups on the side •  Now runs 500 Startups London

Digital Marketer Turned VC

/ Since July 2010 1,500+ investments3

About 500 Startups

$240MM in assets2

The various geographies highlighted in the map result from investments we have made across all 500 Startups funds. 1. The Silicon Valley Tech Venture Capital Almanac, Fall 2013 and TechCrunch Article May 5, 2015, “500 Startups Aims To Be The Largest VC Shop In The World” http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/05/500-startups-aims-to-be-the-largest-vc-shop-in-the-world/ 2. Approximated as of 9/1/2015 and includes the following 500 Startups funds: (a) 500 Startups, L.P. and 500 Startups-A, L.P. (together, “Fund I”), (b) 500 Startups II, L.P. and 500 Startups II-A, L.P. (together, “Fund II”), (c) 500 Startups III, L.P. and 500 Startups III-A, L.P. (together, “Fund III”), (d) 500 Startups IV, L.P. and 500 Startups IV-A, L.P. (together, “Fund IV”), (e) 500 Startups Annex Fund, L.P. (“Annex”), (f) 500 Luchadores, L.P. (“Luchadores”), (g) 500 Durians, L.P. (“Durians”), (h) 500 Mobile Collective, L.P. (“Mobile Collective”), (i) 500 Kimchi, L.P. (“Kimchi”), (j) 500 TukTuks, L.P. (“TukTuks”), (k) 500 Startups JP, L.P. ("Japan") and (l) 500 Startups Istanbul, L.P. ("Istanbul")."

About The Distro Dojo?

Distro = (n.) Distribution; the action or process of supplying products or services to potential customers.

Dojo = (n.) from the Japanese dō ‘way pursuit’ + jō ‘a place’; a school for training in various martial arts.

Who: Companies with a live/GA product and happy/paying customers (typically post-seed), ready to focus on growth!

What: Investment from 500 Startups, $150K - $250K, plus an intensive 12-week program covering all aspects of growth

When: Next batch starts May 18. Applications by referral only.


Is Growth Hacking Bullshit?

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

Defining Growth

“A hacker is one who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming and circumventing limitations of systems.”

Verna Gehring The Internet in Public Life

Defining Hacking

“A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth… to take responsibility for growth and an entrepreneurial drive.... They must have the creativity to figure out unique ways of driving growth in addition to testing/evolving the techniques proven by other companies.”

Sean Ellis

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.


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


Conclusions !  This is definitely a thing. But… !  Many of the best are not marketers !  Includes the whole (pirate) funnel !  Much of the action is in the middle of the 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

Nov 16, 2015

Weeks 3 - 12

MeasureExecutePrioritiseBrainstorm

Distro Dojo Process & Schedule/

Goals & KPIs

1 - 3 goals & KPIs at the funnel-stage level, e.g. boost

traffic, or conversion, or app

downloads, or conversion to paid

First just your team Then with all Sensei Then with specialist

experts in your tactics.

Rank by highest leverage (effort vs.

impact)

• Weekly sprints • 1:1 with specialist

expert mentors • UX Audit • SEO Audit • Personas &

Messaging

• Analytics Audit • Build (or fix) KPI

dashboard • Weekly reviews

Weeks 1 & 2

The Mindset 1.  Humble: 2/3 of tests fail. Failure " learning! Embrace failure! 2.  Tenacious: Persistent with a bias towards action – do’ers. 3.  It’s a science: Systematic thinker, curious, keen observers, understands

experimental design, causation and correlation. 4.  It’s an art: Obsessed with simplifying the customer journey.

5.  Systems thinker: Use existing momentum, find the lever points. Always looking for the 80/20’s or better.

6.  Intensely Curious: Ask a lot of questions, ask great questions. 7.  Optimistic: Comfortable with ambiguity, hopeful but impatient. 8.  Diverse: Variety of perspectives, backgrounds.

9.  Relationship Builders: Can help involve the whole org. 10.  Driven: People who know what success looks like and won’t settle.

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


Any Questions?


[email protected]!