Tag: Growth

Madrona Welcomes Katie Drucker and Mark Britton to the Team

Today, Madrona announced the hiring of technology entrepreneur, investor, and advisor, Katie Drucker, to head the industry and business development relationships and partnerships for Madrona and its portfolio of companies. Relationships, whether they be customer or partner, are crucial for companies at all stages. Recognizing this Madrona has built programs such as an annual CIO summit, CIO briefing days and regular tech meetups that bring enterprises and startups together. Katie will operationalize Madrona’s ability to create strategic relationships that move the needle for portfolio companies as they drive revenue, customer growth, and build market fit.

As the Head of Business Development and Partnerships, Katie brings a global and Seattle-based approach and network to building meaningful relationships with both corporate and governmental organizations looking to be on the cutting edge of technology innovation. Her role will include deepening and expanding of Madrona’s network of senior execs, advising companies on partnership strategies, and building deep customer relationships – all designed to enhance customer and partner engagement programs for Madrona’s portfolio.

Katie brings a career of building partnerships and creating networks at the highest levels as a founder, CEO and COO of technology-based startups in SaaS and cyber security and six years as an investor at Trilogy Equity where she sourced deals, served on boards, and developed strategic relationships. Within this role Katie led deals focused on the mobile industry, helped source and recruit talent, and led investments and follow on rounds for early stage companies. Most recently she was the Managing Partner at Cascade Target Group, a business development and consulting company focused on elevating technology startups to government agencies. Prior to Cascade, Katie was co-founder and CEO at Sigby/Protemo and COO of PolyVerse, where she led fundraising, shipped products, and drove business development and ecosystem creation. She is excited to focus in developing the tech ecosystem that surrounds Madrona and its portfolio companies, driving new opportunities and value for all stakeholders.

Mark Britton joined Madrona in early 2019 as a Strategic Director. As a long-time fixture in the Seattle technology scene for his perseverance and leadership of Avvo, Mark brings a point of view to Madrona built over a career of company building one of the landmark Seattle companies. Starting life as an SEC lawyer, Mark quickly discovered the entrepreneurial bug and founded Avvo in 2006, a marketplace to provide regular people with information and access to legal counsel. The company raised $132 million and was acquired by Internet Brands in January of 2018. Mark left Avvo in April to explore his next steps and we are excited that part of that step is working with Madrona and our portfolio companies.

Strategic Directors are established operators who work with the Madrona team as we evaluate investment thesis and specific companies, while also sharing their incredible wealth of knowledge with Madrona’s portfolio companies. Other recently appointed Strategic Directors at Madrona are Steve Singh, Betsy Sutter, Sujal Patel and John McAdam.

“As Madrona builds our team to support Seattle entrepreneurs we couldn’t be more excited to have Katie and Mark on board. We are excited to have Katie bring her drive and network to play an integral role with all of our companies as they work with us leading up to and after funding. We spend intense time with our companies, focused on adding value to them and their team from day one to the long run through their entire journey and go-to-market know-how and partnerships are incredibly valuable to companies of all sizes,” commented S. Somasegar. “Mark is an insightful leader and we are excited to have him on board to share his knowledge and experience of company building through economic ups and downs with us and with our portfolio companies. Having these two leaders on board illustrates our strong passion and capability to continue to deliver for our founders and companies. Welcome to both of them to the Madrona family.”

Terry Myerson Joins Madrona as Venture Partner

We are thrilled to announce that Terry Myerson is joining Madrona as a Venture Partner. Terry has a broad set of technical and business leadership experiences and has been a successful entrepreneur. His insights both at a technical and a business level combined with his penchant for action is something that will be valuable in working with start-ups and entrepreneurs whether they are at an early stage or have reached a level of scale at a later stage.

Terry joins us from a long and illustrious career at Microsoft where he was most recently the Executive Vice President for the Windows and Devices Group. While at Microsoft, Terry was responsible for the software platform and devices within Microsoft’s workplace, gaming and cloud solutions. This included Windows, Surface, Xbox, Windows Server, InTune, Advanced Threat Protection and HoloLens Mixed Reality.

Terry started out as an entrepreneur. He founded Intersé, one of the first web software companies, which Microsoft acquired in 1997.

At Microsoft he took that penchant for action that is crucial for startup founders to lead teams to create some of Microsoft’s most successful products. His team created Windows 10, which has the highest customer satisfaction of Microsoft platforms to-date with over 700 million customers and growing. Terry also led the Exchange team, during which time it became the world’s most popular business communications system and the foundation for Office 365.

I have had the opportunity to partner and work with Terry over the years right from the time he was working on Exchange and all the way up to when he was running the Windows business for Microsoft. Particularly as I was responsible for the developer products, there were many times when I partnered with Terry and his team who were building platforms to ensure we had a great developer story. During all those interactions, the thing that stood out the most for me was his laser focus on delivering value for the customers and ensuring customer success. There were also several instances where we ended up making shared technology bets and I knew that he would deliver.

Terry currently serves as a member of the board of trustees for Seattle Foundation, which is dedicated to making the great Seattle area a stronger and more vibrant community for all.

Venture Partners both look at new investment opportunities as well as help our existing portfolio companies with their management, engineering and business experience. Terry is a very seasoned operator and brings a lot to the table.

Please join us in welcoming Terry to Madrona.

Doubling Down on Jama

Today, Madrona is incredibly excited to participate in one of the largest investments ever in an Oregon-based software company, the $200M growth equity investment in Jama Software led by Insight Venture Partners.

Madrona first invested in Jama in 2013 based on our belief that product managers needed better, more modern tools, or even a system of record. Further, we believed in founder and CEO Eric Winquist, the team, and in the product they had developed since 2008, starting with a better approach for requirements management and extending to purposeful collaboration that helped teams build great products.

The company made a successful transition to a subscription business model and cloud-hosted SaaS. Eric then recruited Scott Roth as CEO, who added to the great Jama team by recruiting additional experienced and high-performing executives. Scott has done an amazing job scaling the company.

Today, Jama has grown into a leading product development platform provider for companies building complex products and integrated systems. The Jama Product Development Platform helps companies establish a process to mitigate risk, improve quality, identify opportunities and decrease time to market via an integrated solution for guiding the product lifecycle from idea to launch. More than 600 innovative companies use Jama Software to modernize their product development process.

This significant investment from leading growth equity firm, Insight Venture Partners, is validation of the value Jama provides to customers, its market leading position, as well as its rapid ARR growth. Even more importantly, this new investment round validates the opportunity that lies ahead. This is what is most exciting to Madrona. We see considerably more growth in Jama’s core market, winning new customers and converting others from older systems like IBM DOORS. The company is just starting to scratch the surface with its business outside of North America, as well as working more closely with key partners. The launch of Predictive Product Development and Jama Analyze in April were examples of a number of new product and service enhancements in which the company will continue to invest.

Madrona loves to partner with founders from Day One. In many ways, it’s Day One again at Jama. We are delighted to continue to partner with Scott Roth and the Jama team, and now Richard Wells and Insight. We will continue to roll up our sleeves and work hard to help grow Jama into an indelible Pacific Northwest success story.

Working Geek: Madrona’s Growth Guru Ryan Metzger Uses Data to Stay Organized at Work and at Home

Working Geek is a regular feature on GeekWire that profiles technology and business leaders, offering tips, tricks and insights into how busy professionals get work done.

Madrona Venture Group’s Ryan Metzger is a diehard Seattle sports fan. (Madrona Photo)

As Madrona Venture Group’s in-house growth advisor, Ryan Metzger supports more than 60 companies at any given time.

He’s also a father of two, a runner, hiker, and avid sports fan. So how does he keep it all in balance? By relying on data.

A combination of health-tracking apps and productivity tools help Metzger stay focused on his goals in and out of the office.

At Madrona, he helps startups scale by offering marketing advice and customer data.

“How I help companies depends on their stage and their target customer. It could mean helping a company understand the value of different customer cohorts, getting a new marketing program up and running, or connecting a marketing lead with people and partners relevant to their business,” he said.

Before he joined Madrona, Metzger worked in customer acquisition and product roles at Zulily, Microsoft, Google, and Blue Nile.

“Some of the advice I give comes from my past, but I also stay current by learning from others who are executing well in a particular area,” he said.

We caught up with Metzger for this installment of Working Geek, a regular GeekWire feature. Continue reading for his answers to our questionnaire.

Current Location: “Downtown Seattle, Wells Fargo building, 34th floor. Views are nice, but it also has Seattle’s best sandwich shop in our lobby. My wife, Erin, oversees product there so please pass along any feedback on what you’d like to see in their summer seasonal.”

Computer types: “Windows 10 PC. Sometimes I have Mac envy since most people here and at startups use them, but I’m sticking with Windows. I sometimes get deep into Excel and the Mac version has let me down before. I also grew up not far from Redmond so have a little extra hometown pride that should keep me using Windows for the foreseeable future.”

Mobile devices: “iPhone 6S and Kindle.”

Favorite apps, cloud services and software tools: “Microsoft Office, Smartsheet, Airtable, Waze, Twitter, Slack, Spotify and Feedly. That last one doesn’t get much mention in these columns, but I still use RSS to keep up-to-date on the latest developments.”

Describe your workspace. Why does it work for you? “When I’m at Madrona I work from an office, but more often I’m out meeting with companies either at their office or at a coffee shop nearby. My current favorite is Slate on 2nd Ave near the Smith Tower. If you see me there and want to chat about the latest NBA/NHL arena development or growth strategies of your startup, please say hello!”

Your best advice for managing everyday work and life? “In both work and life, I try to use data to make sure I’m staying on track as it relates to my goals.

At home, it’s important to me to stay healthy so food and exercise logs have been good ways to make sure I’m eating right and staying active. A few years ago, I ran some experiments in those areas and wrote about what I learned here.

At work, I support over 60 companies, so I sometimes look at data on who I’m meeting with and who I’m emailing to make sure I’m balancing my time across the people and activities where I can have the biggest impact. I also seek out projects that can apply to multiple companies so that I’m getting leverage out of my role.”

Your preferred social network? How do you use it for business/work? “Social networks are critical to marketing these days so I keep tabs on all of them, but if forced to choose I’d say Facebook. It’s a place where nearly every consumer brand is active so I take a lot of screenshots when I see a marketer doing something unique. Lately, I’ve been in the crosshairs of Stitch Fix Men and they’ve been throwing everything but the kitchen sink at me. I’ve been served video ads, canvas ads, images of people wearing clothes, and images of clothes laid out flat. I’ve not yet signed up, but have been impressed with how they’ve been executing!”

Current number of unanswered emails in your inbox? “9. I’m writing this in the morning and going through emails is one of the first things I try to do. The number was quite a bit larger a few hours ago.”

How do you run meetings? “I don’t run as many meetings as I once did now that I’m in an advisory role instead of managing a team. Most of the meetings I’m involved in today are ones where I am trying to be as helpful as possible to marketing or growth leads at startups. I come prepared to these meetings with a few ideas, but the form they take depends on who I am meeting with and what they are focused on.”

Everyday work uniform? “Button down shirt, khakis or jeans. Unless it’s the day of an important Seattle sports event. Then I’ll tap into my extensive jersey collection and support the home team.”

How do you make time for family? “Weeknights between 6 and 8 p.m. is my main time to spend with my wife and two kids and I try to be off phone and email then. Weekends are also important for family time and you’ll often find us out on a walk together or at a local park.”

Some of Metzger’s sports memorabilia.

Best stress reliever? How do you unplug? “Being in the stands at Century Link or Safeco Field cheering on the home teams. I’m a native Seattlite so have lived through the ups and (more often) downs of the Seahawks, Mariners, Sounders and Sonics over the years. A few times a year I really unplug and tailgate for Seahawks games where I’m the guy who goes out of his way to make food related to the opposing team’s city. Next year’s schedule doesn’t have too many great opportunities, but there may be some Philly Cheesesteaks being served along Utah Ave that you won’t want to miss.”

What are you listening to? “Ben Harper, Pearl Jam, Guster, Pat McGee Band. I once read that people stop discovering new music in their 30s and those are all from my college days so it seems to be true with me!”

Daily reads? Favorite sites and newsletters? “Mattermark Daily and their growth-focused newsletter Raise the Bar, Growth Hackers (though I don’t like that terminology), GeekWire, Recode, Stratechery by Ben Thompson, Venture Pulse.”

Book on your nightstand (or e-reader)? “Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice by Clayton Christensen. I was a big fan of The Innovator’s Dilemma by the same author and was excited to hear what he had to say about generating new ideas. I’m halfway through and have already jotted down a few applications of his ideas that I’m excited to share with a few startups.”

Night owl or early riser? What are your sleep patterns? “Some of each. Pre-kids I was more of a night owl, but they are doing their best to turn me into an early riser.”

Where do you get your best ideas? “My best ideas come when I am outside going for a run or on a hike. Being outside removes distractions and helps me focus. It’s common that I’ll come back with a few new marketing ideas to share or even a new business that I may want to start or seek out.”

Whose work style would you want to learn more about or emulate? “This might be a surprise coming from a lifelong Seahawks fan, but former 49ers coach Bill Walsh. His teams were dominating when I first started following the NFL, but I didn’t truly appreciate how they got there until I read his book The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership. Though I’ll never be a football coach, I still took away many lessons on preparation, teaching, and leadership that apply as much to the business world as they do to the football field.”

5 Things I Learned from Studying Facebook Benchmark Data

Through my role at Madrona Venture Group advising startups on growth, I meet a lot of marketers using Facebook to acquire and engage with customers. It’s a powerful platform. Unfortunately, many companies are falling short of their goals and are left frustrated with what they see as unrealized potential.

Recently I began a Facebook benchmarking project with the goal of providing marketers in our portfolio with aggregate performance data on different stages of the funnel. This project used 2015 and 2016 data from companies who were targeting consumers. B2B companies were not included in this study, though many have successfully marketed on Facebook and many of the same trends likely apply.

Through this process, I came up with 5 recommendations that companies should consider as they try to get the most out of this large and increasingly competitive channel.

1. Know where you are on the calendar — don’t ignore seasonality

Prior to my role at Madrona, I led a growth team investing millions on Facebook each month. Even with this budget, we were often surprised at how volatile the channel could be. A common explanation for this unpredictability was an increase in demand for ad impressions — supply stays the same, demand goes up, and your scale falls drastically. Our data show that there are three big bumps throughout the year when prices rise — April, September and December. It’s likely the tax advertisers in April, apparel companies in September (back to school and fall fashion shows), and general retail in December that are driving up prices. From our study, January and February featured the lowest prices of the year, so now could be a good time to scale up. Alternatively, April is the highest month in H1 so you may want to hold back spending there in favor of before and afterwards. Just be careful in November and December as prices during those periods that were 2x January.

2. Use in-month pricing cycles to your advantage

Different pricing within a month is another trend that appeared in the data. Prices were 20% higher in the last 10 days of the month compared with the first 10 and they increased throughout the month. Exceptions did apply in a few months with holidays like July and February, but this trend appeared in the majority of months. If you have a set amount you are spending per month, allocate a greater share of spend earlier in the month when prices are lower and your dollars go further. Doing so could lead to a meaningful increase in the efficiency of your ad spend.

3. Make sure visitors have great experience on mobile

This user visited a landing page not optimized for mobile.

Among our companies, 82% of newsfeed impressions occurred on mobile devices. That percentage will only grow. Mobile newsfeed impressions used to come at a large discount relative to their desktop counterparts and they remain cheaper, but the gap is shrinking. Because much of the discount has disappeared and because of how large mobile is, it is crucial for any prospective advertiser to make sure their mobile experience is solid before being aggressive on Facebook. This means limited text, clear calls to action, and extensive testing on different devices and screen sizes. Promoting app downloads and sending visitors to a mobile browser can both be effective depending on the situation, but in each case make sure your customer onboarding gives people a fast and clear understanding of your key value proposition(s) so you’re not wasting money.

4. Understand costs of reaching your audience

While it was once made up of exclusively college students, these days the Facebook audience is much more diverse. Nearly every customer segment is reachable on Facebook which is one reason why so many companies turn to it to reach prospective customers. The breadth of the Facebook audience does not mean, though, that all audiences are reachable for the same price. In our study, impressions served at females were 33% more expensive compared to males. Differences can also be found among different ages, geographies and other demographic qualities. Companies would be wise to understand their audience and what that means from a cost-to-reach standpoint before getting too far along in their Facebook marketing journey. Suggested Bids in Ads Manager has not been reliable when I’ve used it, so the best way I’ve found to learn prices of different audiences is through live testing. Also keep in mind that the more relevant your creative is for the audience you are trying to reach, the more cost effectively you can reach them.

5. Treat alternative placements differently — Instagram does not equal Facebook

Over the last few years Facebook has increased its impressions in places beyond the newsfeed. Instagram and the Audience Network are the two that were used most often by our companies and performance data from those placements made for an interesting comparison to native Facebook ads. Instagram was used most often and, while prices were in the ballpark relative to mobile newsfeed, the clickthrough rate was much lower. This takes us back to social media 101. Think through what consumers are doing on each platform and have that in mind when building creative. It’s different by platform. Don’t waste money running ads that have been optimized for Facebook on Instagram. Alternate placements available through Facebook will increase in the future, so keep this in mind when extending your brand to other platforms.

Facebook can be a great place to reach customers, but it can also be unpredictable and frustrating for many. I hope some of the data that came out of this study can shed some light on what’s happening and leave you with ideas on how to exceed your goals.

 

10 Lessons from 1-year in a VC Growth Role

One year ago I took advantage of a rare opportunity by accepting a ‘growth role’ at a venture firm. My job is to help our portfolio companies grow and this has given me a unique vantage point to witness the difference between successful and unsuccessful companies when it comes to growth marketing.

One thing that surprised me is that there is so much in common even when looking at companies at different stages or with different types of customers. Closely monitoring cohorts, for example, has proven to be just as important at a B2B company like Smartsheet as it has been for a company selling to consumers like Rover. An attribution system that links pre and post-purchase data is crucial to the success at a mid-stage company like Bizible just as much as it is at a later-stage one like Redfin.

Here is more information on those two and other lessons I have learned both from the Madrona companies I partner with as well as my prior experience in growth roles at zulily, Microsoft, and Blue Nile:

1. Invest in Data Collection Early On
A common mistake I see is when a company implements the basic version of Google Analytics and thinks they have their analytics needs met for the foreseeable future. While that approach may help spot some high-level directional trends, it does not allow a company to identify micro trends that can be catalysts for future growth. While at Microsoft in charge of selling subscriptions to Exchange Online in the pre-Office365 days, we invested early in a data warehouse and were able to dive into pageview and purchase behavior to identify the content with the highest conversion rate. Using our data warehouse, we found that a particular case study was 5x as correlated with buying vs. other types and promoted it more heavily as a result. The good news for marketers today is that there are analytics tools available that can be setup much more quickly and affordably than in the past. I am a fan of both Segment and Alooma for event tracking / data pipelines and Redshift as a data platform.

2. Link Pre and Post Customer Data
Many people are surprised to learn that at zulily we had a CAC target in one program that was 50x as high as a target in another. For a time, both were a part of our mix as we could use them to acquire customers for less than they were worth. The reason we could operate this way is that each ‘member’ we acquired was tagged with specific details about where they came from enabling us to monitor their value throughout their lifetime. We did this not only at the program level, but also even more granular like by keyword in paid search. Where I’ve seen companies miss in this area is having a uniform CAC target. In the zulily example, that would have likely resulted in overpaying for the lower-quality traffic and eliminating the higher-quality one. SaaS companies I work with are able to do similar as they can see the traffic sources for buyers and then see which of them led to the stickiest and most satisfied customers over time. Often times programs that are more expensive end up being the stronger performers over time as the long-term customer value is greater than other programs that can deliver cheaper initial customers.

3. Look at Cohorts in Multiple Dimensions
Looking at customers in cohorts is a great way to measure performance and it is great to see an increasing number of companies doing this. Cohorts can be especially valuable in businesses with high repeat or engagement rates as well as subscription companies that need to closely monitor churn. When I do cohort analysis myself, I like to look at two different styles: time-based and behavioral.

A time-based cohort chart like the one below shows the cumulative value of customers based on the time they were acquired. This type of analysis lets you compare groups to see if they are getting more or less valuable at comparable points in their tenures. In this case, you’d notice a few weeks in that the December 2015 was under-performing:

time cohort

time-based cohort measuring cumulative demand over time

Behavioral cohorts normalize for time and instead look at different characteristics of customers. A few examples of this type are: whether customers came from paid or unpaid sources, which customer segment they belong to, or which device they signed up with. In the chart below, you’ll see values across different programs — let’s hope ‘Program E’ were very inexpensive to acquire!

behavior cohort

behavioral-based cohort measuring cumulative demand of different segments

High-performing companies look at both of these styles often. One of our companies, ReplyYes, noticed in their time-based cohort view that a recent month was trending lower very early on in their tenure. They then looked at a behavioral-based cohort and noticed that a new segment they had been experimenting with was not as valuable as their traditional customers. They quickly made optimizations and saw future cohorts look better as a result.

4. Think of Growth as a Cross-Functional Effort
One of the benefits of tech businesses is the speed of iteration that can be possible. A company can launch a test, see the results, and iterate until they identify a statistically-significant improvement to a key metric. Where this falls down is when all of the steps in this process fall on the shoulders of a single individual (often a head of marketing). A better approach is to look at opportunities like this cross-functionally where developers, UX designers, product managers, and marketers work together toward a shared growth goal. New landing pages and onboarding experiences in particular can lead to step-change style improvement and are most successful when multiple disciplines contribute their complementary strengths.

5. Don’t View Marketing Programs in Silos
With all of the noise in the marketplace, acquiring and retaining a customer can be a very complex system with many unanticipated consequences. Rapidly increasing the quantity of leads can lead to a decrease in the customer experience and effectiveness of retention programs. Increasing the scale of one acquisition program can have significant impacts (both positively and negatively) on other acquisition programs. For this reason, the most effective companies start with what I call a ‘universal source of truth’ metric (like new customers or total revenue) and work backwards to see which programs and tactics are contributing to it.

A common misstep on the acquisition side is to look at pixel-based conversions in individual programs. Individual marketing programs can appear to be hitting ROI targets when doing this even when the overall business struggles because of double or triple-counting the same conversion. A common pitfall I see caused by this approach is over-investment in retargeting programs that look fine in isolation but often times do not when looked at more holistically. To avoid this, start with the total orders or customers and don’t be afraid to A/B test retargeting in particular to see its true impact.

6. Understand ‘Pull’ and ‘Push’ Customer Acquisition Programs
An exercise I like to go through with companies is to classify their acquisition programs based on the customer mindset at the time someone learns about their offering. Doing this tends to group programs into what I call ‘pull’ and ‘push’ marketing. Pull marketing is when customers know about the category and actively seek out solutions on by asking their friends / colleagues or by searching on Google or a vertical-specific directory. Push marketing, by contrast, is when customers are doing other things, but learn of an offering because it is ‘pushed’ to them (like in a newsfeed). Many companies are able to succeed with both types, but typically one will be dominant.

A service or product where most of their marketing is ‘pull’ will often have lower margins. Here it is important to focus on things like page load time and testing different parts of the funnel as small improvements can have a large impact on performance. Alternatively, when ‘push’ is dominant, storytelling becomes more important which increases the need for a strong PR presence as well as high-quality ad copy and landing pages. Even if you are growing nicely due to success in one style, I still find it valuable to keep testing both as a healthy mix tends to lead to the best outcomes over the long run.

7. Explore Offline Channels
Though most people I work with allocate the majority of their media budget to online channels, I see many of the faster-growing ones having some success offline. Succeeding with offline channels will require flexibility when it comes to attribution, but the cost can be lower and it can be a good way to stand out from what can be noisy and competitive online channels. Apptio in our portfolio has succeeded with direct mail and at one time it made up a quarter of their pipeline. On the consumer side, Indochino has been having success with podcasts and at zulily we scaled up quite a bit with TV advertising. If you decide to test offline programs, keep in mind that they can be slower to get started and have higher initial testing budgets compared with online programs so be patient and plan ahead.

8. Be Careful of Unrepresentative Early Customers
As I noted earlier, it is important to invest in analytics early to best understand how customers are reacting to your product or service. An important second piece of this is to make sure that early customers are representative of the types that you will see later on at larger scale. I have seen this lead companies astray when a disproportionate number of early users come from people they already know. An audience of your friends and family can react much differently than a more general audience, so I recommend that companies have a mix of paid and unpaid even in the early days. Doing so and comparing performance across different segments (like in #3) will help you understand how users are reacting in more predictable ways.

9. Don’t Assume Program Performance Will Scale Linearly
Hearing about a new successful acquisition program is one of my favorite parts of my job, but I’m careful to tell marketers who have found something not to be complacent. Problems can arise when people believe performance will continue at the same rate into the future and at greater scale. Increasing competition can cause performance to suffer in addition to declines caused by reaching larger and less-targeted audiences once campaigns get larger. Rather than assuming initially strong performance will continue, I recommend taking a more cautious view that individual programs will get harder and more expensive at greater volume. Doing so will lead to fewer surprises down the line and should also encourage people to stay hungry for new programs.

10. Be Open to Different Levels of Experience in Growth Leader
There is no clear date for when the era of growth marketing began, but many point to 2012 when Sean Ellis coined the term ‘growth hacker.’ Facebook is used as an early example of some of these principles in action and it opened its membership beyond college students only in 2006. Since we are now in 2016, it pains me to see when companies seek out someone with 10+ years’ experience to run their growth team. People who are curious, analytical, fairly technical, and can work cross-functionally tend to be most successful in growth roles and I have found those qualities in people with a wide range of experience levels.

This list is only a start as growth marketing is a rapidly-changing field that is only just beginning. I’m excited to learn more about the successful growth strategies that emerge and whether they fit into this list or are completely different.