with Mattan Griffel, CEO of One Month / @mattangriffel
GROWTH HACKING:
How Startups Grow From
0 To Millions Of Users
Prepared for

PS: I LOVE YOU.
GET YOUR FREE E-MAIL AT…

In 1996 co-workers Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith
planned to start a company called JavaSoft

BUT THEY WERE AFRAID THEIR
BOSS WOULD CATCH THEM

SO THEY BUILT A
WEB-BASED EMAIL SYSTEM

AND SO HOTMAIL
WAS BORN

THEY
RAISED
$300,000

But Hotmail’s Launch
Was Unimpressive
July August

Their growth strategy was to buy
billboards and radio ads

BUT SOMEONE
HAD A BETTER IDEA

PUT ‘PS: I LOVE YOU. GET
YOUR FREE E-MAIL AT
HOTMAIL’ AT THE BOTTOM
OF EACH E-MAIL.

Within Hours, Hotmail’s Growth
Took The Shape Of A Classic
Hockey Stick Curve
July August

THEY STARTED AVERAGING
3,000 NEW USERS A DAY
July August

WITHIN 6 MONTHS, THEY WERE
UP TO 1 MILLION USERS
July September November

July September November January
FIVE WEEKS LATER, THEY HIT
THE 2 MILLION USER MARK

IN ONE CASE,
BHATIA SENT
ONE EMAIL TO
A FRIEND IN INDIA

WITHIN 3 WEEKS
HOTMAIL HAD
300,000 USERS
IN INDIA

July September November January March May July September November
WHEN THEY SOLD TO MICROSOFT 1.5 YEARS AFTER
LAUNCH, HOTMAIL HAD 8.5 MILLION USERS

July September November January March May July September November
(There were only 70 million internet users at the time)
WHEN THEY SOLD TO MICROSOFT 1.5 YEARS AFTER
LAUNCH, HOTMAIL HAD 8.5 MILLION USERS

THIS STORY
IS NOT AN ANOMALY

WHY DID THESE COMPANIES
SUCCEED WHEN EVERYONE
ELSE FAILED?

SO WHAT IS
GROWTH HACKING?

IN 2010, SEAN ELLIS COINED
THE TERM “GROWTH HACKER”

A GROWTH HACKER IS
A PERSON WHOSE TRUE
NORTH IS GROWTH.
“
– SEAN ELLIS, Startup Marketing Blog

IN 2012 ANDREW CHEN
PUBLISHED THE BLOG
POST:
"GROWTH HACKER IS
THE NEW VP MARKETING”

IN IT, HE REVERSE-ENGINEERS
AN AIRBNB “POST TO CRAIGSLIST” FEATURE

“
– ANDREW CHEN, andrewchen.co
GROWTH HACKERS ARE
A HYBRID OF MARKETER
AND CODER.

GROWTH HACKING IS A
SET OF TACTICS AND BEST
PRACTICES FOR DEALING
WITH USER GROWTH

How do I get more users?
GROWTH HACKING IS A
SET OF TACTICS AND BEST
PRACTICES FOR DEALING
WITH USER GROWTH

How do I get more of my users to be active?
How do I reduce churn?
How do I increase the lifetime value of a user?
How do I measure the effectiveness of new features?
What is our AHA moment?
How do I get more users?
GROWTH HACKING IS A
SET OF TACTICS AND BEST
PRACTICES FOR DEALING
WITH USER GROWTH

Viral Growth

ANALYTICS
Landing Page Optimization Copywriting
SEO
Email Marketing
PR Behavioral Economics
Referral
Advertising
Viral Growth

People want to see growth like this

(This was One Month at Y Combinator Demo Day)

But in reality it looks more like this

Growth will be rocky at first

Over time, trends become more apparent

And variability stabilizes in the long-run

THE STARTUP CURVE
TechCrunch
of Initiation
Wearing Off
of Novelty
Trough of
Sorrow
Releases of
Improvement
Crash of
Ineptitude
Wiggles of
False Hope
The Promised
Land!

#GODEEPER

MOST COMPANIES
ONLY TRACK
THREE THINGS
TRAFFIC
USERS
REVENUE

? ?
GET TRAFFIC GET USERS PROFIT
PHASE 1 PHASE 2 PHASE 3 PHASE 4 PHASE 5

THOSE METRICS
AREN’T VERY HELPFUL!

(The magic is what happens in between)
THOSE METRICS
AREN’T VERY HELPFUL!

THE KEY IS TO MAP OUT THE USER
LIFECYCLE FOR YOUR PRODUCT

THE LEAN
MARKETING
FUNNEL
SEO PR
EMAIL
VIRALBLOGS
SEM
CONTESTS
PARTNERSHIPS
Referral

SEO PR
EMAIL
VIRALBLOGS
SEM
CONTESTS
PARTNERSHIPS
1. ACQUISITION
Users come to your site
from various channels

2. ACTIVATION
Users enjoy their first visit
SEO PR
EMAIL
VIRALBLOGS
SEM
CONTESTS
PARTNERSHIPS

3. RETENTION
Users come back
SEO PR
EMAIL
VIRALBLOGS
SEM
CONTESTS
PARTNERSHIPS

4. REFERRAL
Users like the product
enough to refer friends
SEO PR
EMAIL
VIRALBLOGS
SEM
CONTESTS
PARTNERSHIPS
Referral

5. REVENUE
Users do something that
leads you to make money
SEO PR
EMAIL
VIRALBLOGS
SEM
CONTESTS
PARTNERSHIPS
Referral

THE LEAN
MARKETING
FUNNEL
SEO PR
EMAIL
VIRALBLOGS
SEM
CONTESTS
PARTNERSHIPS
Referral

Referral
AKA
“PIRATE
METRICS”
A
A
R
R
R
SEO PR
EMAIL
VIRALBLOGS
SEM
CONTESTS
PARTNERSHIPS

LET’S SEE IT
IN ACTION

YOU HEAR ABOUT QUORA AFTER
YOUR FRIEND POSTS A QUESTION
FROM QUORA ON TWITTERACQUISITION

AFTER READING THE PAGE YOU
DECIDE TO CREATE AN ACCOUNTACQUISITION
ACTIVATION

… A FEW DAYS GO BY
ACQUISITION
ACTIVATION

YOU GET A WEEKLY DIGEST
EMAIL WITH QUESTIONS AND
LINKS BACK TO THE SITEACQUISITION
ACTIVATION
RETENTION

ONCE YOU’RE BACK, QUORA
ENCOURAGES YOU TO READ
RELATED QUESTIONSACQUISITION
ACTIVATION
RETENTION

AND SHARE INTERESTING
QUESTIONS THROUGH TWITTER &
FACEBOOKACQUISITION
ACTIVATION
RETENTION
REFERRAL

QUORA DOESN’T
CURRENTLY MAKE MONEYACQUISITION
ACTIVATION
REVENUE
RETENTION
REFERRAL

EACH STEP OF THE
LMF CORRESPONDS
TO A USER STATE

To figure out how to move users from one state to the next.
GROWTH HACKER’S JOB:
CREATES AN ACCOUNT VISITS AGAIN LATER
???

CONVERSION RATE:
# OF PEOPLE WHO DO
SOMETHING
# OF PEOPLE
WHO COULD HAVE

YOU NEED TO MEASURE
CONVERSIONS AT EACH STEP
Acquisition Activation Retention Revenue
1000
100
30 9
10%
30%
30%

IDENTIFYING THE BOTTLENECK
At first your numbers will be really bad
Acquisition Activation Retention Revenue
1000
10
2 0
1%
18%
0%
BOTTLENECK

Acquisition Activation Retention Revenue
1000
100
2 0
10%
18%
0%
IDENTIFYING THE BOTTLENECK

GROWTH HACKERS
IDENTIFY TACTICS &
BEST PRACTICES

MINIMAL LANDING PAGES
TO CONVERT BETTER

IDENTIFY COMPANIES THAT FOCUS ON OPTIMIZING
AND TRY TO LEARN FROM THEM

NOT EVERY GROWTH
HACK WILL WORK FOR
YOUR COMPANY

GROWTH HACKERS
EXPERIMENT A LOT

HOW DO YOU RUN
A PROPER EXPERIMENT?

DIVIDE USERS INTO
CONTROL AND TEST GROUPS

DIVIDE USERS INTO
CONTROL AND TEST GROUPS

CONTROL TEST

Run your change on the test group and measure
the difference between the two groups
CONTROL TEST

THIS IS CALLED AN
A/B TEST

SUCCESSFUL
A/B TESTING

LET’S SEE IT
IN ACTION

Original Design
#1 ORIGINAL
Highrise wanted to test out different
homepages to see if they could
increase account signups

So they created a “long-form”
sales letter page
#2 LONG-FORM
Long-form Design

SO THEY RAN AN A/B TEST
Long-form Design
vs.
Original Design

CAN YOU GUESS THE RESULTS?
Long-form Design
vs.
Original Design

WINNER!
Long-form Design
vs.
Original Design

THE LONG-FORM DESIGN
SAW A 37.5% INCREASE IN
ACCOUNT SIGN-UPS

Then they created a personal
testimonial page
#3 PERSONAL
Person Design

AND RAN ANOTHER A/B TEST
Person Design
vs.
Original Design

Person Design
vs.
Original Design
CAN YOU GUESS THE RESULTS?

WINNER!
Person Design
vs.
Original Design

THE PERSON-TESTIMONIAL
DESIGN HAD A 102.5% INCREASE
IN ACCOUNT SIGN-UPS

BUT THE PERSON DESIGN WAS SHORTER
AND HAD MUCH LESS INFORMATION
Person Design
vs.
Long-form Design

So they added more
information to the bottom
LONG-FORM
+ PERSON
Long-form +
Person Design

AND RAN ANOTHER A/B TEST
Long-form + Person
Design
vs.
Person Design

Long-form + Person
Design
vs.
Person Design
WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Long-form + Person
Design
vs.
Person Design

THE COMBINATION PERFORMED
22.7% WORSE THAN THE
ORIGINAL HOMEPAGE

THE COMBINATION PERFORMED
22.7% WORSE THAN THE
ORIGINAL HOMEPAGE

BUT THAT’S
NOT WHERE
THE TESTING
ENDS…

From Dave McClure’s Startup Metrics for Pirates

UNBOUNCE AND OPTIMIZELY ARE AMAZING TOOLS FOR
EASILY CREATING AND TESTING LANDING PAGES

UNBOUNCE IS GREAT FOR
CREATING NEW SITES

OPTIMIZELY IS GREAT IF YOU
ALREADY HAVE A SITE

YOU OFTEN NEED TO
PERFORM 15-20 TESTS IN
ORDER TO FIND 1-2 MAJOR
IMPROVEMENTS

NOTABLE GROWTH HACKS

BrandYourself kept their Mashable
article trending for 2 days by
promoting it on StumbleUpon
ACQUISITION

OKCupid has a “tour guide” that
interacts with you during the signup
process
ACTIVATION

Groupon has two different pages
for Google vs. Direct traffic
ACTIVATION
* Footers are good for SEO but reduce conversions

Path texts the app to your phone
ACTIVATION

Dropbox sends an email when a
user signs up but never installs the
software
ACTIVATION

Eventbrite sends emails if you’ve
been inactive for too long
RETENTION

Path has your friends do it instead!
RETENTION

Facebook integration makes it really
easy to get people to share
REFERRAL

Dropbox, LivingSocial, and Appsumo
know incentivization works well too
REFERRAL

Quora forces people to sign up before
they can read answers
REFERRAL

GROWTH HACKING
RESOURCES

WATCH DAVE MCCLURE’S
STARTUP METRICS FOR
PIRATES

QUORA HAS A BOARD ON GROWTH HACKING

SEAN ELLIS CREATED A SITE CALLED
GROWTHHACKERS.COM

CHECK OUT MY 29 GROWTH
HACKING QUICK WINS ON
SLIDESHARE

FINALLY
Get my FREE Growth
Hacking Crash Course
Visit http://get.onemonth.com/
growth-hacking-crash-course