SHort Deck on some critical areas pertaining to Virality of products

1. Virality of Apps
Ashutosh Garg
@bakfy
@gargashu0
reach@bakfy.me

2. Startup Pyramid
Great Products with
Awesome Design
Product Market
Fit
Effective
Distribution

3. Development
- Becoming more API driven; Integration is the key
- Infrastructure cost/scalability are not back breaking issues anymore
- Social/virality features are super critical
- Simple products; not more than few core features
Product
Design
- Design should be 2 steps ahead of Development
- UX determines what features users use and how
- Design makes complex products look simple; Creative design
- Design should complement in-build virality features

4. “Life is too short to build something nobody wants.”
- Ash Maurya
Product Market Fit
- Experiment Quick. Fail Fast. Really Fast
- Complete Success at MVP Stage is rare. Either complete failure or partial
success
- MVP can no longer be “design-less”
- Critical to track user engagement and feedback.
Ideally User COHORT Tracking

5. “Distribution is the biggest problem faced by every product
startup.”- Peter Thiel
Distribution
- Virality: The Ultimate Bliss
- Traditional Channels: Saturated and need deeper pockets
- Find new, underexplored channels for user acquisition
- Build growth loops into your product

6. “A startup is a search for a repeatable and scalable business
model.”- Steve Blank
Hockey Stick Growth

7. Growth Hacking
Build
MarketMeasure
A
A
R
R
R
C
Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Referral
Revenue
Churn

8. Viral Loop
New User
Registration
Single User
Utility
‘aha’ Moment
RetentionChurn
- Viral Loop: The Steps user goes through between joining and inviting others
- Once user hits ‘aha’ moment, ensure ZERO friction
- Artificially accelerate viral loop through referral rewards
Referral
The Viral Loop

9. How They Did
- Referral Scheme: $10 to referrals / new users
- Leveraged eBay platform to drive asoption
- Social Media Referral Program; Free space for every
social action performed
- Embed Plugins -> Visibility -> Growth
- Tackled the marketplace chicken and egg problem
- Spammed and scrapped niche section of Craiglist
- Entered a crowded market with no major product
differentiation
- Focused on students; Provided free mobile recharge for
successful referrals

10. Takeaways
“Large networks of engaged users, differentiated through user
experience and defensible through networks effects.”
- Fred Wilson
- Focus on Growth and Engagement
- Act on user feedback to improve the product; Early adopters are God
- Smart user acquisition; Explore under penetrated avenues
- Amplify referrals through rewards
- Measure EVERYTHING; Make ‘User Cohorts’; Better the analytics,
smarter the decisions