The
Medium
is
the
Message:
The One Growth Hack to Rule Them All
Growthhacker
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