

Thoughts on Paul Graham's "Growth" - justinmares
http://justinmares.com/thoughts-on-paul-grahams-growth/

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carsongross
Paul Graham, the founder:

    
    
      http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/03/the-startup-curve.html
    

Paul Graham, the VC:

    
    
      http://paulgraham.com/growth.html
    

Don't over-think this, kids.

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DrHankPym
Are you suggesting those articles / models contradict each other? They look
pretty similar - one is just bumpier than the other.

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carsongross
They do contradict one another. In one Paul lays out a process, actually _the_
process (which gels with my experience) which involves a _lot_ of pain and
flat to down time, followed, in the very long run, by the eventual ramp and
growth phase.

Now he suggests you need to have 5% growth _per week_ or your startup is doing
it wrong.

I think that the first view is that of a founder, whereas the second view is
that of a VC.

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rgraham
So important. Spend 2 or 3 days a week focused on this.

It's easy to court some Lean methodology, find something you're pretty sure
people want, and then go into 'build' mode. Don't ever go into 'build' mode.

Customers come from marketing activities. No one clamors to be at Walmart to
buy the new and improved mousetrap. Some of these take calendar time.

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jhartmann
I think it is very very important to not ignore traction boosting activities
early on. It is very important to build a brand, get users engaged, and have
people ready to try out your product when it launches. I think one thing that
the article doesn't mention though is that if you are doing this before you
are delivering value to customers with your product, you need to make sure
your messaging is not just trumpeting your horn. The communication/engagement
strategies should be building real value for your potential customers. People
just tend to pay more attention to people who are constantly providing them
things of value. Lots of people forget or don't realize that the value you
provide doesn't only come from your product.

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Mistone
it's amazing to me how much marketing and customer acquisition has entered
into the "startup" convo over the past few years.

the amazing part is that for so long it was just about building some people
want, fast, and making it better. that was the basic cycle.

now it's building something people want while simultaneously getting the
attention of the people that might want what you're building.

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suprasanna
For those that have been down the startup road before - should this focus also
be reflected in the same proportions in your budget? Ex. Should 50%+ of a
startup's budget be spent on user acquisition/trying new things to gain users
+ increase conversion rates?

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mgummelt
"What this means is that you should be investing just as heavily in growth-
related activities as in product-related ones. We’re suggesting about half
your time should be spent on traction, and half on product."

What should I spend the other 40% of my time on?

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ph0rque
Seems like you're slacking off, unless you meant your other 100%?

