joanna lord: habits of high growth companies and other unicorn adventures - seattle interactive 2015
TRANSCRIPT
Habits of High Growth Companies…and other Unicorn adventures
@joannalord Marketer, blogger, builder of beautiful brands
we’ve become obsessed with growth
chasing something pretty magical
meh. magic.
Sources http://bit.ly/1jnwpig & http://tcrn.ch/1l6CUXn
There are 1,350,000 technology startups.
Guess how many of those are unicorns?
Sources http://bit.ly/1jnwpig & http://tcrn.ch/1l6CUXn
There are 1,350,000 technology startups.
Guess how many of those are unicorns?
Sources http://bit.ly/1jnwpig & http://tcrn.ch/1l6CUXn
142
There are 1,350,000 technology startups.
Anatomy of a Unicorn
Source: http://tcrn.ch/1l6CUXn
Average # of years before a liquidity event
7
34Average age at
founding
SFTop city. NYC & LA are 2nd and 3rd.
3# of women founders
behind unicorns
2007Best year to start a
unicorn (27%).
4Number of unicorns
< 3 years old
8 of Top 10Are consumer companies,
(72% of overall list)
of co-founders have history together
85%
Not all 142 are created equal:
Source: http://tcrn.ch/1l6CUXn
Paper unicorns: Privately held companies valued north of $1B 61% of unicorns are paper (Up 200% YoY)
Super unicorns: Company valued north of $100 billion Facebook is the only one, born prior to 2005. There has been no new SU since 2005.
Decacorns: Companies valued north of $10 billion There are now 9 decacorns (Up 300% YoY). 5 of 9 are mobile.
Unicorns: Companies valued north of $1B There are 142 unicorns (Up 115% YoY)
unicorpses, unicorn hunting, oh my!
“As we enter the next phase of the Age of Unicorns, many highly valued companies will struggle to live up to their valuations, meeting harsh scrutiny
from the press, regulators, and future public market investors. Becoming a unicorn, it turns out, was the easy part.”
@eringriffith, fortune.com
$10 billion Dropbox is increasingly looking like a “feature," not a service
$9 billion Theranos is battling a wave of questions about its technology
$1 billion Evernote has experienced executive turnover as it prepares to go public
lets talk about something a little more relevant
Over 100,000,000 startups open every year.
Over 100,000,000 startups open every year.
Guess how many succeed?
Over 100,000,000 starts open every year.
Guess how many succeed?
1 out of 10
f&ck.** the & is a u. it spells fuck.
we should care about growth because we all want to be successful
and growth is harder than it used to be.
because so much has changed.
1
: marketing
evolution: ownership
1
: marketing
: product & marketingevolution: ownership
1
: marketing
: product & marketing
: product & marketing & engineering & data
evolution: ownership
PRODUCT MARKETING
ENGINEERING DATA
GROWTH
demands new organizational structure
Example: LinkedIn Growth Team
SEO
Onboarding
Network Growth
Comms
PYMK, Virality, Connections
Engagement through email/push, Resurrection
SEO, Conversionoptimization, Public profile
Onboarding, Activation, Intent discovery
2
: creative
evolution: skills
2
: creative
: creative & analyticalevolution: skills
2
: creative
: creative & analytical
: creative & analytical & intuition & technical
evolution: skills
demands new hires & investment
skills that fuel growth : t-shaped
skills that fuel growth : t-shaped hires
Technical : Analytical : Creative : Product : Design Theory : Paid : Inbound : CRO : Content : Statistics: Modeling : Database/SQL : Psychology
4
: hacks
evolution: platforms
4
: hacks
: toolsevolution: platforms
4
: hacks
: tools
: platforms
evolution: platforms
demands curiosity & accelerated adoption
demands new processes
tl;dr: Growth
advantages are shorter
lived.
EVOLUTION OF PLATFORMS
what do you need for growth to happen?
Pillars of a High Growth Company
Product Team Community X Factor
but how can we get it?
there are patterns.
but how can we get it?
there are patterns.
build breakthrough value propositions
Here's a common way startups die. They make something moderately appealing and have decent
initial growth. They raise their first round fairly easily because the founders seem smart and the idea sounds plausible. But because
the product is only moderately appealing, growth is ok but not great. The founders convince themselves that hiring a bunch of
people is the way to boost growth. Their investors agree. But (because the product is only moderately appealing) the growth never comes. Now they're rapidly running out of runway. They hope further investment will save them. But because they have
high expenses and slow growth, they're now unappealing to investors. They're unable to raise more, and the company dies.
- Paul Graham
create a rally point worthy of their time
simplify, grow, everyday
give people the power to share
make the world your home
be less busy
simplify, grow, everyday
give people the power to share
make the world your home
be less busy
why do you wake up every morning?
the world wants more of that.
simplify, grow, everyday
give people the power to share
make the world your home
be less busy
why do you wake up every morning?
the world wants more of that.
simplify, grow, everyday
give people the power to share
make the world your home
be less busy
focus on more than acquisition
Three ways to grow your company.
Acquisition Monetization Retention
Looked at 10,432 blog posts on growth.
snappity snap.
75%No wonder we’re so damn crazy about
acquisition.
acquisition isn’t the most effective channel for growth
if we improve each lever the same, which lever causes the most growth?
whoa.
improving retention and monetization as 2 to 4X the growth impact of focusing on acquisition
participate fully in the ecosystem
4.
4.
4.
4.
4.
4.
invest in unscalable moments of delight
@scottedwards, Director of Growth at Simple
@scottedwards, Director of Growth at Simple
@scottedwards, Director of Growth at Simple
@scottedwards, Director of Growth at Simple
@scottedwards, Director of Growth at Simple
simply put growth is:
creating value
getting in front of as many people
as possible
as often as possible
& &
there are just a lot of distractions
don’t obsess over tactics other people say worked
don’t go looking for that one silver bullet
don’t forget revenue > growth
don’t abandon what got you here
we have a responsibility to grow our companies the right way.
product that offers value to this world. built by empowered teams. with and for communities. in authentic, innovative ways.
product that offers value to this world. built by empowered teams. with and for communities. in authentic, innovative ways.
product that offers value to this world. built by empowered teams. with and for communities. in authentic, innovative ways.
product that offers value to this world. built by empowered teams. with and for communities. in authentic, innovative ways.
Thank You!@joannalord
Marketer, blogger, builder of beautiful brands