In the absence of big budgets, start-ups learned how to hack the system to build their companies.


We default to thinking we need an advertising budget. We want red carpet and celebrities. Most dangerously, we assume we need to get as many customers as possible in a very short window of time — and if it doesn’t work right away, we consider the whole thing a failure.


Despite the glamor and the history of movie marketing, even after investing millions — often more than the budget of the movie itself — studios regularly write off major releases as complete washes. And when they do succeed, no one has any idea why or which of the ingredients were responsible for it.


While their marketing brethen chase vague notions like “branding” and “mind share,” growth hackers relentlessly pursue users and growth — and when they do it right, those users beget more users.


Growth hacking at its core means putting aside the notion that marketing is a self-contained act that begins toward the end of a company’s or a product’s development cycle.


In other words, the best marketing decision you can make is to have a product or business that fulfills a real and compelling need for a real and defined group of people — no matter how much tweaking and refining this takes.


It’s a company policy that before developing a new product the PM must submit a press release to their supervisor for that item before the team even starts working on it. The exercise forces the team to focus on exactly what its potential new product is and what’s special about it.


In my experience, the books that tend to flop upon release are those where the author goes into a cave for a year to write it, then hands it off to the publisher for release. They hope for that hit that rarely comes.

On the other hand, I have clients who blog extensively before publishing. They develop their book ideas based on the themes that they naturally gravitate toward but that also get the greatest response from readers.


Evernote made the companywide decision to delay spending on marketing for the first several years of its growth. “People who are thinking about things other than making the best product, never make the best product.”


The Evernote team produced stickers that said, “I’m not being rude. I’m taking notes in Evernote.”


But the most effective method is simply the Socratic method. We must simply and repeatedly question every assumption. Who is this product for? Why would they use it? Why do I use it?


Virality at its core is asking someone spend their social capital recommending or linking or posting about you for free. You’re saying: Post about me on Facebook. Invite your contacts to use this service. The best way to get people to to this enormous favor for you? Make it seem like it isn’t a favor. Make it the kind of thing that is worth spreading and, of course, conducive to spreading.


The massive growth and spread of Spotify was largely driven by its integration into FB. How many of us saw that our friends were listening to it and thought, “Hey, maybe I should try it, too”?


After more than 14 months of struggling to find a growth engine, the Dropbox team had an epiphany.


You need the kind of objectivity that makes you forget everything you’ve heard, clear the table, and do a factual study like a scientist would.


Dedicated and happy users are marketing tools in and of themselves.


What’s the point of driving a bunch of new customers through marketing channels if they immediately leak out through a hole in the bottom? What’s the use of building up a certain perception of your product in the media and via marketing if the moment people try it they find out the hype isn’t true?


Of course I also told everyone I knew about this customer service experience.


The event organizers gave all the speakers a $50 Uber gift card.


A 5% increase in customer retention can mean a 30% increase in profitability for the company.