Why product channel fit is as important as product market fit, why not all startups are created viral, what it takes to build effective paid acquisition channels and what new channels are worth exploring.

1. Acquisition battles or why
growth hacks don’t work

2. Startup = Growth

3. Easy to build, so much harder to grow
• Big are getting bigger
• Better tooling
• Better competition
• Channel exhaustion

4. Source: Brian Balfour blog

5. • UGC SEO: TripAdvisor, Yelp, Glassdoor, Pinterest
• Virality: WhatsApp, Evernote, Dropbox, Slack
• Paid Marketing: Supercell, Squarespace, Blue Apron
• Supply focus: AirBnB, Thumbtack, Eventbrite
Growth = product channel fit

6. Virality: not all products are created viral
• Quick time to value: coefficient must be greater than one
• Broad value prop: branching factor is high
• Network makes product better: Facebook is better with
friends!

7. Viral growth: TBH growth story
Source: Hacker Noon story by Kevin Natanzon

8. Remove the friction
Source: Hacker Noon story by Kevin Natanzon

9. Paid marketing channel
• Medium to broad value prop due to targeting pitfalls
• Superior tooling
• Transactional model

10. Competition for the ads: it is getting
crowded
Source: Recode on FB mobile ad revenue

11. Law of shitty clickthroughs
Source: Internet Trends 2017 by Mary Meeker

12. You need superior tooling and data infra
to succeed
Source: AirBnB blog

13. Ongoing optimization and attribution
Source: AirBnB blog

14. Marketplaces: get supply first or AirBnB
Craiglist hack

15. New channels: voice?
Source: Internet Trends 2017 by Mary Meeker

16. New channels: offline?

17. Risky things
• Infrequency of product usage: leads to acquisition
treadmill
• High natural churn: dating/gaming
• JUST one acquisition channel: acquisition is an arbitrage

18. QQ? @katka_s,
katya@theventure.city