Hey everyone! In case you're new here, I'm Hsu Ken, Managing Partner at Iterative. This is our first AMA (and hopefully not the last), and I’m here to answer any questions you have about how to grow your startup. Ask me…
– What you should know about your users and how to learn them
– How to identify growth levers and use them to grow 5% to 7% every week
– The difference between good and bad growth
– The importance of retention when growing
– The funny tricks all successful startups use to grow fast in the early days
This thread will be open for seven days. Ask whatever questions you have on startup growth and I'll answer them in the comments. While you're at it, subscribe to our newsletter - it's full of startup advice and it's free :)
Is growing 5% to 7% still applicable in a market downturn? Wouldn't growth be stunted during a time of slowed spending? [Thank you, this would be the last! Hehe, had a bit of time to be curious tonight.]
In the early stages, should startups prioritize growth over profitability? Which of the two do investors value more when evaluating a startup (if in case, growth and profitability cannot be achieved at the same time)?
At which point do you know when it's time to grow your team? Should founders be cost-efficient and only consider growing the team when the founders can no longer handle the load? Or be aggressive and grow the team when the founders are expecting heavy load in three months?
How should your growth strategy change when growing to 1000 users, gathering feedback and iterating your product, to wanting to grow to 10,000 and then 100,000 users? Is there usually a step change in strategy?
AMA on How to Grow Your Startup
What are your thoughts on paid growth in the early stage? Using only facebook or tiktok ads for the first few users etc.
Is growing 5% to 7% still applicable in a market downturn? Wouldn't growth be stunted during a time of slowed spending? [Thank you, this would be the last! Hehe, had a bit of time to be curious tonight.]
In the early stages, should startups prioritize growth over profitability? Which of the two do investors value more when evaluating a startup (if in case, growth and profitability cannot be achieved at the same time)?
At which point do you know when it's time to grow your team? Should founders be cost-efficient and only consider growing the team when the founders can no longer handle the load? Or be aggressive and grow the team when the founders are expecting heavy load in three months?
What's the difference between good and bad growth? Is there a bad growth?
What are attractive growth metrics for investors to directly say yes to investing in a startup?
What are some of the "growth hacks" or "out of the norm", "funny" approaches that B2C startups can leverage on to boost their user growth? :)
How to identify growth levers and use them to grow 5% to 7% every week?
How should your growth strategy change when growing to 1000 users, gathering feedback and iterating your product, to wanting to grow to 10,000 and then 100,000 users? Is there usually a step change in strategy?
What is the right balance between rapid growth and strong unit economics as an early stage startup?
How do you successfully change customer behavior both in the early days and at scale?
What should we know about our users and how should we learn those things?