I helped a startup grow from $3M to $24M in 8 months.

The secret? Be a little delusional.

Here are 14 lessons I learned about growing a rocketship:

Before going further, always remember:

• It's always a team effort.
• Retention is key to growth.
• It's rare a product grows without marketing.

Okay, let's go:
1/ Find out your wedge and double down.

Wedge: It is simply a strategy to win a large market by initially capturing (1) a tiny part of a larger market or (2) a large part of a small adjacent market.

Our wedge was our unique point-of-view.

Our POV gave the AHA! moment.
2/ It's never one person game.

You need 3 kinds of players: a visionary, executor and processor.

I was the executor, my boss a visionary & my other two key teammates were amazing at processing and making it work.

Lesson:Find a great combination that feels like magic.
3/ Category creation and innovation do pay off.

Our product created its category and innovated its field.

It was a unique sub-category & take on learning.

The timing was right in this case.

Category drives POV & growth.
4/Product-channel fit is always evolving.

Products are built to fit with channels. Channels do not mold to products.

I grew the product with solely two channels i.e. Google Ads & Facebook ads.

Then, I found Tiktok working for us -- we found a new channel fit.
5/ Brand storytelling makes a huge difference.

Instead of selling our point of view only, we sold transformation.

Our customers saw a huge difference in 6 months after using the product.

We made them heroes. We told their stories. We showed their transformation.
6/ Authority is a psychological principle that does make a difference.

Because the founder was an authority in the space.

We exploited the story because it scroll stopped and made people pay attention.
7/ Commit to a niche, instead of trying to be everything to everyone.

Our niche: wealthy homeschooling and gifted kids' parents.

I just doubled down on the messaging that resonated with them.

It worked like a charm. What's a sub-niche you can try?
8/ Be delusional and make unrealistic goals that scares you.

My motivation was to work for the vision but my boss's unrealistic goal pushed me even further.

We wanted to grow $3Mn to $10Mn within 3 months. I thought my boss was BS-ing.

Somehow we believed in it, and it worked.
9/ A channel fail doesn’t mean, you failed.

In my first month, I lost the company $40,000 on Google ads.

I spent $150K on influencer marketing, the ROAS was abysmal.

Failing is growth. Failing is part of figuring out
10/ Your pricing defines how fast you grow.

I've worked for 3 cost-effective brands, and 2 high-priced products. I have high- priced products grow faster.

Our product was expensive so it disqualified a lot of bad customers.

Our CAC to LTV ratio was 1:10.
11 / Refine and scale your existing channels

My Google ads were working fine but I hired a specialist.

At scale, hire a specialist to do their job or at least some dedicated.

Below were the changes we made to our Google ads:
12/ Rapid experimentation with messaging --> documenting learning.

Most orgs are experimenting but not documenting.

When you don't document, the new folks will make the same mistakes.

We tested weekly what messaging resonated on our homepage.

This gave us deeper insights.
13/ Don't just convert, activate.

We were getting 10-15% leads on our home but we didn't convert them enough.

After talking to customers, I learned that people had nuanced questions and wanted to get closer to the founding team.

We added: Educational & orientation webinars
14/ Make it easier to pay and gauge intent.

If your product has a demand but not enough conversions.

You might have too much friction to pay.

Our sign-up flow took 2-3 days for someone to pay. We made it 5mins by adding Typeform (40% conversion lead to paid).
If you enjoyed this thread:

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#ஆதித்தியஹ்ருதயம் ஸ்தோத்திரம்
இது சூரிய குலத்தில் உதித்த இராமபிரானுக்கு தமிழ் முனிவர் அகத்தியர் உபதேசித்ததாக வால்மீகி இராமாயணத்தில் வருகிறது. ஆதித்ய ஹ்ருதயத்தைத் தினமும் ஓதினால் பெரும் பயன் பெறலாம் என மகான்களும் ஞானிகளும் காலம் காலமாகக் கூறி வருகின்றனர். ராம-ராவண யுத்தத்தை


தேவர்களுடன் சேர்ந்து பார்க்க வந்திருந்த அகத்தியர், அப்போது போரினால் களைத்து, கவலையுடன் காணப்பட்ட ராமபிரானை அணுகி, மனிதர்களிலேயே சிறந்தவனான ராமா போரில் எந்த மந்திரத்தைப் பாராயணம் செய்தால் எல்லா பகைவர்களையும் வெல்ல முடியுமோ அந்த ரகசிய மந்திரத்தை, வேதத்தில் சொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளதை உனக்கு

நான் உபதேசிக்கிறேன், கேள் என்று கூறி உபதேசித்தார். முதல் இரு சுலோகங்கள் சூழ்நிலையை விவரிக்கின்றன. மூன்றாவது சுலோகம் அகத்தியர் இராமபிரானை விளித்துக் கூறுவதாக அமைந்திருக்கிறது. நான்காவது சுலோகம் முதல் முப்பதாம் சுலோகம் வரை ஆதித்ய ஹ்ருதயம் என்னும் நூல். முப்பத்தி ஒன்றாம் சுலோகம்

இந்தத் துதியால் மகிழ்ந்த சூரியன் இராமனை வாழ்த்துவதைக் கூறுவதாக அமைந்திருக்கிறது.
ஐந்தாவது ஸ்லோகம்:
ஸர்வ மங்கள் மாங்கல்யம் ஸர்வ பாப ப்ரநாசனம்
சிந்தா சோக ப்ரசமனம் ஆயுர் வர்த்தனம் உத்தமம்
பொருள்: இந்த அதித்ய ஹ்ருதயம் என்ற துதி மங்களங்களில் சிறந்தது, பாவங்களையும் கவலைகளையும்


குழப்பங்களையும் நீக்குவது, வாழ்நாளை நீட்டிப்பது, மிகவும் சிறந்தது. இதயத்தில் வசிக்கும் பகவானுடைய அனுக்ரகத்தை அளிப்பதாகும்.
முழு ஸ்லோக லிங்க் பொருளுடன் இங்கே உள்ளது
https://t.co/Q3qm1TfPmk
சூரியன் உலக இயக்கத்திற்கு மிக முக்கியமானவர். சூரிய சக்தியால்தான் ஜீவராசிகள், பயிர்கள்