1.
You are here
Getting to traction

2.
Objective
1. Talk through where to focus!
2. Give practical advice on how to
kick start growth

3.
Characteristics of
successful founders
1. Empathy for the end consumer!
2. Belief !
3. Knowing when to give up!
4. Focus!
!

4.
Characteristics of
successful founders
1. Empathy for the end consumer!
2. Belief !
3. Knowing when to give up!
4. Focus!
!
1. Focus!
!

5.
2. Improving your
unit economics!
!

6.
3. Performance
marketing!
!

7.
4. Viral growth!

8.
5. Hustle!
!

9.
Practical advice
Focus
Improving unit economics
Performance marketing
(or Viral growth)
Hustle
____________________
Gets you to traction
+
@nilanp

10.
But first
introductions…
@nilanp

11.
s
Average price of CHF49 per guest per night
4,000,000 nights…
@nilanp
Vice President
Growth
HouseTrip.com

12.
@nilanp

13.
Startups
@nilanp

14.
Startups Tequila
@nilanp

15.
Back to traction

16.
Revenue

17.
Revenue

18.
Revenue

19.
Death Zone

20.
Revenue

21.
What does traction
feel like ?

22.
GROWTH

23.
Revenue

24.
The anatomy of
traction

25.
The anatomy of
traction
1. Identified a scalable acquisition
channel!
2. Improved unit economics
support scaling

26.
Product - market fit
1. Your earning enough per
customer!
2. To support acquiring customers
in a scalable channel

27.
Product - market fit
1. Your earning enough per
customer!
2. To support acquiring customers
in a scalable channel
1. Your earning enough per
customer!
2. To support acquiring customers
in a scalable channel

28.
Objective
1. Talk through where to focus!
2. Give practical advice on how to
kick start growth

29.
Practical advice
Focus
A great product
Performance marketing
(or Viral growth)
Hustle
____________________
Traction
+
@nilanp

30.
Characteristics of
successful founders
1. Empathy for the end consumer!
2. Belief !
3. Knowing when to give up!
4. Focus!
!

31.
Characteristics of
successful founders
1. Empathy for the end consumer!
2. Belief !
3. Knowing when to give up!
4. Focus!
!
1. Focus!
!

32.
Practical advice
Characteristics of
successful founders
@nilanp

33.
Practical advice
Characteristics of
successful founders
1. Empathy for the end consumer
2. Belief
3. Knowing when to give up
4. Focus
@nilanp

34.
Practical advice
Characteristics of
successful founders
1. Empathy for the end consumer
2. Belief
3. Knowing when to give up
4. Focus
@nilanp

35.
Practical advice
Focussing to get to
traction means…
1. Pick one lever
2. Define a prioritising metric
3. Prioritise features and
activities
4. Execute
@nilanp

36.
Practical advice
Focus on
1. Getting good unit economics
2. Systemically finding a scalable
acquisition channel
1. Performance marketing
2. Viral
3. Hustling
3. Execute
@nilanp

37.
2. Improving your
unit economics!
!

38.
Practical adviceImproving your unit
economics means…
@nilanp

39.
Practical advice
…Building a great
product
@nilanp
Improving your unit
economics means…

40.
Practical advice
Building a great
product means…
…Delighting your
customers
@nilanp

41.
Improve unit
economics
1. eCommerce businesses!
1. Margin!
2. Conversion rate!
2. Apps / Freemium!
1. Engagement!
2. Usage frequency!
3. Sign up to premium
What does improving your unit
economics mean ?
@nilanp

42.
Improve unit
economics
1. eCommerce businesses!
1. Margin!
2. Conversion rate!
2. Apps / Freemium!
1. Engagement!
2. Usage frequency!
3. Sign up to premium
Improve unit economics
1. eCommerce businesses
1. Margin
2. Conversion rate
2. Apps / Freemium
1. Engagement
2. Usage frequency
3. Sign up to premium / added service

43.
Improve unit
economics
1. eCommerce businesses!
1. Margin!
2. Conversion rate!
2. Apps / Freemium!
1. Engagement!
2. Usage frequency!
3. Sign up to premium
Improve unit economics
1. eCommerce businesses
1. Margin
2. Conversion rate
2. Apps / Freemium
1. Engagement
2. Usage frequency
3. Sign up to premium
Why is this important pre-
traction?

44.
Improve unit
economics
1. eCommerce businesses!
1. Margin!
2. Conversion rate!
2. Apps / Freemium!
1. Engagement!
2. Usage frequency!
3. Sign up to premium
Improve unit economics
1. eCommerce businesses
1. Margin
2. Conversion rate
2. Apps / Freemium
1. Engagement
2. Usage frequency
3. Sign up to premium
Increase the amount you
can spend to acquire a
customer

45.
Practical advice
Building a great
product
… some practical advice on
how to do this
@nilanp

46.
Practical advice
Building a great
product
1. Look at cohorts of user behaviour
2. Build micro conversion events
3. Introduce features to transition
users from passive to active
4. Ruthlessly focus on the parts of
the funnel where you can have the
most impact
5. But above all…

47.
Practical advice
Focus on single
users
credit: Klinger.io

48.
Practical advice
Do this and you
will…
1. Improve your unit economics
2. Earn more per customer
3. Delight your customers
@nilanp

49.
3. Performance
marketing!
!

50.
3. Performance
marketing!
!
(Now you’ve got working unit
economics - focus on traffic)

51.
Money in Money
out

52.
Money in < Money out

53.
Improve unit
economics
1. eCommerce businesses!
1. Margin!
2. Conversion rate!
2. Apps / Freemium!
1. Engagement!
2. Usage frequency!
3. Sign up to premium
What’s your objective with performance
marketing ?

54.
Improve unit
economics
1. eCommerce businesses!
1. Margin!
2. Conversion rate!
2. Apps / Freemium!
1. Engagement!
2. Usage frequency!
3. Sign up to premium
What’s your objective with performance
marketing ?
Find a scalable channel

55.
Improve unit
economics
1. eCommerce businesses!
1. Margin!
2. Conversion rate!
2. Apps / Freemium!
1. Engagement!
2. Usage frequency!
3. Sign up to premium
What’s a scalable channel ?

56.
Improve unit
economics
1. eCommerce businesses!
1. Margin!
2. Conversion rate!
2. Apps / Freemium!
1. Engagement!
2. Usage frequency!
3. Sign up to premium
What’s a scalable channel ?
A scalable channel is one that if you focus
on will enable you take at least 20% of
your target market

57.
Improve unit
economics
1. eCommerce businesses!
1. Margin!
2. Conversion rate!
2. Apps / Freemium!
1. Engagement!
2. Usage frequency!
3. Sign up to premium
What’s scalable volume ?
1. Impression volume
2. High intent traffic
3. Relevant targeting
Do the maths !

58.
The
performance
marketing
landscape

59.
Kwaja slide
• Where to focus ?

60.
Kwaja slide
• Where to focus ?
Where to start ?

61.
What I need…

62.
Targeting

63.
Intent
Relevance
Google
Everything!
else

64.
Practical advice
Performance
marketing in detail
1. Google
2. Facebook
3. Other stuff
@nilanp

65.
Google - How it
works

66.
Practical advice
When to trial
Google ?
1. When you have a product
with better unit economics
than the incumbent
2. People already search for
your product on Google

67.
Practical advice
How to set up your
first campaign
1. When you have a product
with better unit economics
than the incumbent
2. People already search for
your product on Google

68.
Practical advice
Google hacks
@nilanp

69.
Hacking Google - off
topic
1. On and off topic traffic!
2. Gmail ads

70.
Hacking Google - off
topic
1. On and off topic traffic!
2. Gmail ads
Gmail ads

71.
Hacking Google
1. On and off topic traffic!
2. Gmail ads
Off topic adsOff topic targeting

72.
Hacking Google
1. On and off topic traffic!
2. Gmail ads

73.
Hacking Google
1. On and off topic traffic!
2. Gmail ads

74.
Practical advice
2. Facebook
@nilanp

75.
Practical advice
When to trial
Facebook ?
1. No volume on Google
2. You can target an audience
for your product on
Facebook

76.
Practical advice
When to trial
Facebook ?
1. No volume on Google
2. You can develop an
audience for your product
on Facebook

77.
Practical advice
Facebook hacks
@nilanp

78.
Hacking Facebook
1. Similar audiences!
2. Intent targetting:!

79.
Hacking Facebook
1. Similar audiences!
2. Intent targetting:!
Similar audiences

80.
Behavioural targeting

81.
Practical advice
Content marketing
on facebook
1. Build an audience
2. Engage customers in a
conversation about your product /
industry
3. Promote unique content that ties
hand in glove with your product
4. Support positioning

82.
Practical advice
Content marketing
on facebook
1. Build an audience
2. Engage customers in a
conversation about your product /
industry
3. Promote unique content that ties
hand in glove with your product
4. Support positioning
Not always scalable

83.
Practical advice
Performance
marketing growth
hacks
1. Google
2. Facebook
3. Other stuff
@nilanp

84.
Practical advice
Performance
marketing growth
hacks
1. Google
2. Facebook
3. Other stuff
@nilanp

85.
Why u no ?
1. SEO!
2. Email!
3. RTB!
4. Retargetting!
5. Content marketing!
6. Social / instagram

86.
Why u no ?
1. SEO!
2. Email!
3. RTB!
4. Retargetting!
5. Content marketing!
6. Social / instagram

87.
Why u no ?
1. SEO!
2. Email!
3. RTB!
4. Retargetting!
5. Content marketing!
6. Social / instagram

88.
Retargetting
1. Email!
2. Social!

89.
Practical advice
Performance
marketing summary
1. Performance marketing can
get you to scale
2. Focus on scalable channels
3. Look for unorthodox routes
to market
@nilanp

90.
4. Viral growth!

91.
Practical advice
Pre-requisites
1. Have a great product
2. Have your first 1000
customers
3. Customers are part of high
trust networks with other
target customers
@nilanp

92.
Building a viral loop

93.
Building a viral loop
Customers find
customers
Conversion to
sign up
Conversion to
repeat / premium

94.
Practical advice
Virality
1. Model virality
2. Give away value
3. Identify the right moment
to strike
4. Optimise
@nilanp

95.
Practical advice
Modelling virality
Viral co-efficient <1credit: Andrew Chen / Rahul Vohra

96.
Practical advice
Modelling virality
Viral co-efficient >1credit: Andrew Chen / Rahul Vohra

97.
Practical advice
Modelling virality
Add in carrying capacity
Add in retentioncredit: Andrew Chen / Rahul Vohra

98.
Practical advice
Modelling virality
Decrease retention to 50%
credit: Andrew Chen / Rahul Vohra

99.
Practical advice
Virality
1. Model virality
2. Give away value
3. Identify the right moment
to strike
4. Optimise
@nilanp

100.
Focus!
!
Give away value!
NOT money!

101.
Focus!
!
=

102.
Focus!
!
=

103.
Focus!
!
=

104.
Practical advice
Virality
1. Model virality
2. Give away value
3. Identify the right moment
to strike
4. Optimise
@nilanp

105.
Practical advice
Model engagement
engagement
time

106.
Practical advice
Model engagement
engagement
time

107.
Practical advice
Model engagement
engagement
time

108.
5. Model and optimise!
!
Optimise!

109.
Practical advice
Virality
1. Modelling virality
2. Give away value
3. Curves of engagement
4. Model and optimise
@nilanp

110.
Hustle!
!
5. Hustle!
!

111.
1. Talk to your
customers

112.
1. Talk to your
customers
Talk to
customers!

113.
2. Find more
customers!

114.
2. Find more
customers!
Find more
customers!

115.
Guerilla
marketing!

116.
3. Testathon!
4. !

117.
4. UserTest!
!
Conferences!
!

118.
Objective
1. Talk through where to focus!
2. Give practical advice on how to
kick start growth

119.
Characteristics of
successful founders
1. Empathy for the end consumer!
2. Belief !
3. Knowing when to give up!
4. Focus!
!

120.
Characteristics of
successful founders
1. Empathy for the end consumer!
2. Belief !
3. Knowing when to give up!
4. Focus!
!
1. Focus!
!

121.
2. Improving your
unit economics!
!

122.
3. Performance
marketing!
!

123.
4. Viral growth!

124.
5. Hustle!
!

125.
Practical advice
Focus
Improving unit economics
Performance marketing
(or Viral growth)
Hustle
____________________
Traction
+
@nilanp

126.
You are here
Getting to traction
@nilanp