SlideShare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. See our User Agreement and Privacy Policy.
SlideShare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. See our Privacy Policy and User Agreement for details.
Successfully reported this slideshow.
Activate your 14 day free trial to unlock unlimited reading.
Gaining Early Traction by Doing Things that Don't Scale (Hustling)
My talk from Sean Ellis' Growth Hacking Conference in London, October 2014.
It starts with a story of how I hustled my way into affording a drum set at age 14 by painting curbs in my neighborhood.
It then covers a lot of the tactics that we have done at Creative Market to grow rapidly, as well as mentions of other company's successful non-scalable growth strategy.
My talk from Sean Ellis' Growth Hacking Conference in London, October 2014.
It starts with a story of how I hustled my way into affording a drum set at age 14 by painting curbs in my neighborhood.
It then covers a lot of the tactics that we have done at Creative Market to grow rapidly, as well as mentions of other company's successful non-scalable growth strategy.
9.
3 stages of startup growth
There are 3 Stages of Growth
1) Product Market Fit
3) Scalable growth stage
10.
3 stages of startup growth
There are 3 Stages of Growth
1) Product Market Fit
2) The Hustle Stage
3) Scalable growth stage
11.
“Startups take off because the founders make
them take off. A good metaphor would be the
cranks that car engines had before they got
electric starters. Once the engine was going, it
would keep going, but there was a separate and
laborious process to get it going.”
— Paul Graham
12.
20
There are 3 Stages of Growth
non-scalable ways to
HUSTLE
your way to
scalable growth
13.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
1) Manually invite your first
customers. Start in a niche.
14.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
2) Invite friends and family
(and other connections)
15.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
3) Join the conversations at
target niche communities and
forums.
16.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
4) Ask your competitor’s
customers to try your new
service & give feedback.
17.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
5) Go directly to your users.
Ask them to sign up in person.
18.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
6) Speak directly with
users to understand how
your product can better
meet their needs.
19.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
7) Community engagement.
Reply to every comment.
20.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
8) Aim for 100% customer
satisfaction. Everyone leaves
happy!
21.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
9) Go above and beyond to
delight customers.
22.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
10) Give away free stuff for
signing up.
23.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
11) Allow users to give their
friends free stuff.
24.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
12) Give away new free
stuff weekly (retention)
25.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
13) Content is king.
Distribution is queen.
Always be writing and
sharing.
26.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
14) Write guest posts on
other people’s blogs.
27.
There are 3 Stages of Growth
15) Forge Partnerships.