

Show HN: Top HN Growth Hackers - akshxy
http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/users&q=growth+hacker&sortby=karma+desc&start=0
Folks please don't misinterpret the data. It's just an attempt to list all the growth hackers on HN.
I am sure the big names are missing here. Kindly drop in your details below.
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dchuk
I can't wait until the term "growth hacker" goes out of style.

HN is so averse to anything related to marketing, conversion optimization, or
anything else similar to such practices that a whole new title has emerged
simply so no one has to grimace when saying they need to hire a "marketer".

Call a spade a spade: growth hacker == marketer. Yes, they use data to lead
their decision making process and are more empirical than traditional mad men
style marketers, but that by no means warrants a whole new job title.

Growth hackers are just good marketers using the data and tools available to
them.

~~~
aginn
Actually they are not just "marketing people". They top growth hackers are
often full-stack developers (Jesse Farmer, Matt Humphrey, Jim Young, Mike
Greenfield, Dan Martell, Danielle Morrill, Ivan Kirgin etc).

This is not inbound marketing but building product that, at its core, is
focused on growth. LinkedIn, Zynga, Quora, Twitter, and Facebook all have
growth teams.

Do you know Dropbox's brilliant referral strategy? That was the brainchild of
Sean Ellis (growth hacker), Ivan Kirigin (growth hacker), and Dropbox
leadership.

~~~
dchuk
The goal of a marketer is to grow a customer base. That's what these growth
hackers are doing, they're just doing it in a more technically advanced way
via data confirmation and split testing.

Referral strategies have been around for decades, the Dropbox guys didn't hack
anything they just applied an old principle to a new technology.

Growth hacker and marketer are synonymous titles.

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mindcrime
OK, now somebody tell me how "growth hacker" is, specifically, different than
just saying "marketer" or "marketing strategist?" Not to take anything away
from the growth hackers, but I'm curious if this is just a meme, or if there's
some actual substance to what a "growth hacker" does that's unique compared to
other positions.

~~~
akshxy
Check these threads

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4309345>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4436034>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4069417>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4059580>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4104510>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4297857>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4069417>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4104510>

~~~
mindcrime
OK, so a marketer who uses scripts to automate things, and is very data
focused. Got it. Not sure this justifies creating a new title, but these are
marketing people we're talking about...

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jasonkester
Just updated my profile to include "Growth Hacker". Curious to see how long it
takes before I'm officially the Top one here.

Just nobody ask me what the term means, ok?

~~~
petercooper
Ditto. Sorry ;-)

~~~
akshxy
haha, Thank you for doing it so. These days I have been going through the jobs
section at HN, its kind of frustrating to see all the time some job openings
with 'Growth Hacker' title listed for days. But isn't it true every problem
has in it the seeds of its own solution.

------
creativename
Maybe it's just chance that two meta-HN posts (Top HN ...) show up on the
front page today, but it seems like a lot all of a sudden...

~~~
GertG
I propose a new law: An observation of the form "Maybe <counter-argument>, but
<observation>" can probably be adequately dismissed with <counter-argument>.

