The Medium is the Message:
The One Growth Hack to Rule Them AllGrowthhacker Live Conference – 4/27/2013 Patrick Vlaskovits @Pv vlaskovits.com

My Book

I helped invent “growthhacking” with
Sean Ellis & Hiten Shah in June 2010.

Boom.

This is How, this is
not What

Business plans & spreadsheet. A
toy. Life begins as

Risk (you can measure this).
Uncertainty (impossible to measure). Your fundamental domain is

Your Team Maintains the boundaries
of organizaMon. Moves fast and breaks things. (Maybe even people.)

Your Product Has analogs and
compeMMon is on features. Empowering people to do new stuff.

Your Death CompeMMon stabs you
repeatedly and dances on your grave. You die of thirst in the desert. Alone. No one knows or cares.

The Irony of Successful InnovaPon
End up here (the wallpaper). Start here (The New New Thing). This includes innovaPon in product and business model.

How Everyone Views DisrupPve Ideas
Bad Ideas Good Ideas Indeterminate Ideas

The Reality Bad Ideas
Good Ideas Indeterminate Ideas

InnovaPve products don’t fit in
exisPng sales & markePng channels. “The Medium is the Message.” -­‐Marshall McLuhan InnovaPve products demand innovaPve context and mediums.

RETWEET THIS -­‐ hVps://twiVer.com/Pv/status/328956998244777984

The Medium is the Message
How you get to the customer is as important, if not more, then what you get to the customer. ExisMng mediums provide wrong context for innovaMve products. (Important corollary: innovaMve mediums need innovaMve content to maintain context.)

B.Y.O.C. • Fundamentally, growth hacking
is NOT mastery of >>exisPng<< markeMng eg for online SEO, SEM, PPC, viral markeMng etc etc • Growth hacking is true innovaMon in sales and markeMng mediums. • Ergo, different than tradiMonal VP of MarkeMng role. (ExecuMon of best pracMces) • “Bring Your Own Channel.” – Sean Ellis

Message Tupperware Xerox copiers The
4-­‐Hour Chef (Ferriss) Cubism (Picasso) Tesla (Musk) PayPal YouTube Instagram Facebook (Zuck) Street skaMng (Hawk) GoPro Medium Home parMes Direct sales, selling consumables BitTorrent Art dealers as patrons Stores, not dealerships eBay Embeds (?) Status & bragging via iPhone Photo tagging VHS (?) AcMon Sports The Medium is the Message Vice versa?

Message Growthhacking Flurry as ad
network Apple products The Lean Startup book Lean Entrepreneur book Veronica Mars Zach Braf sequel ? Novel content Medium ‘Sohware eaMng the world’ AnalyMcs Apple as retail experience Crowdfunding Crowdfunding Crowdfunding Crowdfunding 3D prinMng & digital fab Nejlix The Medium is the Message Vice versa?

How to Avoid Death:
Convexity + Lean Startup

Non-­‐linear upside, limited downside

You Have Been Warned
• Want exponenMal growth? à The Medium is the Message. • Hockey sMck is outcome of discovering/manufacturing an uncontested markeMng channel. • Test with convexity. Don’t punish ‘failure’. • Steal. Copy. Remix. • ‘Think Different’ – Steve Jobs ß The Medium is the Message. • PS Big thanks to Venkatesh Rao of RibbonFarm.com for TMITM framing. Read his blog.

@Pv