I almost gave up on retention strategies until a mentor shared this one simple framework. It changed everything for us, helping us scale from 237 users to 19893 users without spending a dime on marketing.
What I've Learned From 41 Companies
Across 234 angel investments, including Anthropic, a few patterns in growth hacking come up again and again.
The founders who handle growth hacking well understand that customer feedback is the only metric that matters.
The Reality Nobody Talks About
A lot of the advice on growth hacking rests on assumptions that made sense five years ago. The world has moved on.
The first thing to understand is that most founders overthink this and underspend on execution. I've seen this play out across dozens of companies. The pattern is unmistakable.
Many teams spend months on the wrong path before realizing that the best solutions are often the simplest ones. Once they make the switch, everything changes.
What I Tell Founders
Before deciding anything about growth hacking, start with three questions:
What's your timeline? Because the right approach for a company with 6 months of runway is very different from one with 3 years.
What have you already tried? Most founders have tried something. Understanding what didn't work is often more valuable than knowing what might.
Who on your team owns this? If the answer is "everyone" or "no one," that's your first problem to solve.
These questions seem simple but they reveal a lot about where a company actually stands.
This connects to broader themes around referral programs, community-led growth, retention strategies, growth hacking that I've been thinking about a lot lately.
Final Thoughts
There are no shortcuts in growth hacking, but there are smarter paths.
The strongest teams treat growth hacking as a competitive advantage, not a checkbox. They invest in it early, measure it obsessively, and never stop improving.
If you're just getting started with growth hacking, don't be intimidated. Everyone starts somewhere. The key is to start with the right mindset and the right framework, and then execute like your company depends on it. Because it probably does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q:How can I apply this thinking to my own situation?
Start by identifying the core principle behind the opinion, not the specific example. Then ask yourself: does this principle apply to my context? If yes, test it in a small, low-risk way before going all in.
Q:How has this view evolved over time?
My thinking on most topics has changed significantly over the years. Early in my career, I held many conventional views that experience proved wrong. I try to update my beliefs when the evidence changes.
Q:What's the most common pushback you get on this?
People often push back by citing exceptions or edge cases. And they're usually right that exceptions exist. But building a strategy around exceptions rather than patterns is a losing game for most founders.