8. Product
Core Product Value
User Experience/Design
Product Market Fit
9. Distribution
“Startup = Growth” - Paul Graham
“Distribution is the biggest problem faced by every
product/startup” - Peter Thiel
“Distribution and retention are Wilson on mobile than on
web” - Fred harder
10. How?
Web Mobile
Organic
Organic Mobile ads
Online ads
Social Media Social Media
SEO/SEM
Traditional ads Appstore gaming
Traditional ads
11. Traditional Marketing
Most channels, saturated
The winner is usually the one with deeper pockets
All you can do is come up to par withof them
need to leapfrog ahead the competition; you
12. Differentiate
Not only your product, but also your growth strategy
Find new, under-explored channels for user acquisition
Build growth/engagement loops into your product
Always aim for hockey-stick growth
14. Acquisition
Activation
A
A
R Retention
R
R Referral
C
Revenue
Churn
15. Traditional Marketing Growth Hacking
Incremental - 10% Moonshot - 10X
Linear Growth Exponential Growth
Unrelated to the product Built into the product
Acquisition Acquisition + Retention
Saturated Under-explored
Increasing CPA at scale Decreasing CPA at scale
16. Growth
• Build virality into the product
• friends are on it more valuable for the user if their
Make the product
• rewards which drive furthertheir friends through in-app
Incentivize users to invite
engagement
• Leverage existing networks/channels
17. Engagement
• Address a real pain-point
• Make the product much better than the competition
• your competitors improve what you have; offer what
Listen to users;
don’t
• Form habits to boost product engagement
18. What you need
Single user utility
The “aha” moment
A rapid viral loop
19. Single User Utility
• effects untila he gets enoughsocial system with network
To retain new user in a
friends on board
• Increases engagement & retention; reduces churn
20. the “aha” moment
• an engaged user of whether a new user will turn into
Leading indicator
• users your “aha” moment. Analyze existing engaged
Find
• Get new users to the “aha” moment as soon as you can
21. the “aha” moment
• Facebook: 7 friends in 10 days
• Twitter: Follow 30 users
• Zynga: Come back after 1 day
• Dropbox: Upload 1 file
22. Viral Loop
• The viral loop - the steps a user goes through between
joining to inviting the next set of new users.
• Once the user hits his “aha” moment, ensure zero
friction to the viral loop
• Make it easy to invite and get their friends on board
• Artificially accelerate the viral loop through referral
rewards
23. New User
Registration
Single User The
Utility Viral
“Aha” moment Loop
Churn Retention
Referral
27. Dropbox
Referral program > virality > explosive growth
Social media referral program
Embed plugins > visibility > growth
28. Youtube
Free video hosting
Embed videos > visibility > growth
Enable users to build an audience; attract content
29. Airbnb
Tackled the marketplace chicken-and-egg problem; created
supply/demand by spamming Craigslist
Targeted a niche on Craigslist, and made it 10X better
30. hike - what we do
1. Focus on Growth & Engagement
2. Build an amazing product to engage/retain users
3. Early adopters; focus on users; act on feedback; improve
4. Smart user acquisition
5. Amplify referrals through rewards
31. hike - what we’re aiming for
Awesome Product Rapid Growth
+ +
Great Distribution Great Engagement
The best position a startup can be in:
• through networks of engaged users, differentiatednetwork
Large
user experience, and defensible through
effects. - Fred Wilson, USV