Gustaf Alströmer - Growth for Startups

YC Partner and growth expert Gustaf Alströmer talks about how to measure product market fit, how to decide on a growth channel, metrics that lie about PMF and other mechanics of growth for startups.
Transcript and lecture slides here: www.ycombinator.com/library/6...
This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program and global community of founders. Register and join the community at www.startupschool.org/
Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 Introduction
1:36 Do things that don't scale
3:55 Case study: Airbnb
8:33 Product-market fit
16:30 Growth channels and tactics
18:29 Conversion rate optimization
21:37 Growth channels to explore
25:46 Referrals & virality
28:16 Paid growth
30:20 Search Engine Optimizaion (SEO)
33:12 A/B Testing
37:45 Conclusion

[@chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Introduction 00:20 - What I will cover today 01:02 - Background 01:19 - Most startups don't have product-market fit 01:36 - Misconception - 'If you build it, they will come' 02:25 - Do things that don't scale 03:16 - Every MBA in YC - 'This idea will not scale' 03:49 - Airbnb in 2009 04:12 - - First version of Airbnb website 04:30 - - Question from Paul Graham - Who are your users? 04:43 - - - Airbnb website after joining YC 05:18 - - Things Airbnb was missing 05:30 - - - Talk to your users 07:24 - - Lesson - Startups take off because founders make them take off 08:28 - - Only one way to grow when you are small! 08:32 - Product Market Fit (PMF) 09:08 - - Best way to figure out product market fit 09:19 - - - Two ways to start that - metric and repeat usage 09:50 - - Examples for measuring product market fit 09:53 - - - Airbnb 10:20 - - - Instagram 10:45 - - - Gusto 11:13 - - - Lyft 11:32 - - Now, measure your retention graph 11:49 - - - Bad product 13:37 - - - Great product with product market fit 13:56 - - - Example graph 1 - Doordash 14:22 - - - Example graph 2 - GitHub 14:34 - - Retention - Best way to measure PMF 14:45 - - Other (worse) ways to measure PMF 14:48 - - - Net promoter score 15:04 - - - Surveys 15:18 - - - 'How would you feel if you can no longer use this product' 15:32 - - Bad metrics for PMF 15:39 - - - Registered users 15:46 - - - Visitors 15:52 - - - 'Conversion rate' 16:06 - - - 'Customers that aren't paying' 16:31 - Growth channel and tactics (if you have PMF) 17:05 - - Two ways to grow at scale 17:16 - - - Product growth/Conversion rate optimization 17:40 - - - Growth channels 18:29 - - Product growth - Conversation rate optimization 18:37 - - - Product is a funnel 19:32 - - - Every step in the funnel have a drop-off 20:04 - - - Areas to focus on 20:11 - - - - Internationalization 20:25 - - - - Authentication 21:02 - - - - Onboarding 21:25 - - - - Purchase conversion 21:38 - - Growth channels to explore 21:46 - - - Google SEO and SEM 22:14 - - - Virality and referrals 22:44 - - - Virality 23:32 - - - Sales 24:18 - - - Paid acquisition (Facebook, Google etc.) 25:08 - - - Most big companies grow huge using only 1 or 2 channels 25:45 - Referrals and Virality 25:53 - - Definition 26:13 - - Airbnb referrals product 26:27 - - Airbnb referrals funnel 26:57 - - - Airbnb referrals invite email 27:07 - - - - Optimize for Social proof, clear value, urgency, exclusivity 28:17 - Paid growth 28:50 - - Lesson 1 - Don't do it unless you have revenue 29:06 - - Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) 30:15 - - Main channels 30:22 - Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 31:11 - - SEO is a zero-sum game 31:21 - - Key words change constantly 31:37 - - What you see - Airbnb search result page 31:40 - - What Google sees - Airbnb search result page 31:55 - - Two main levers for SEO 31:58 - - - On-page optimization 32:28 - - - Off-page optimization 33:13 - Making decision using A/B testing 33:29 - - Situations where its helpful 33:46 - - Most of you don't need this right now (don't do it!) 34:08 - - Example 34:47 - - Experiment review - Help make decisions at scale 35:17 - - - 'Good product instincts' 35:27 - - - Example 1 - IOS sharing sheet 36:22 - - - Example 2 - Signup wall or not? 37:35 - - Product decisions are hard 37:40 - - Most of you won't need A/B testing for a long time 37:45 - Summary 38:26 - End

[@warrakehussein2297]

I'm always excited when i hear "Retention"

[@brawndo8726]

Retention 💋

[@DoctorPe949]

Please your contact details linkedin

[@yoloswag6242]

Semen retention

[@alexandreazevedo1667]

Retention as the product-fit evidence is great. Many times we think too much on the acquisition in the beginning. Although it’s important to acquire users, if retention is low (high churn rate), you’re just bringing more people who will be somehow frustrated with your product.

[@aemericenglish2417]

1. If u build it, they will come X IF U BUILD IT, THEY WONT COME 2. 2 Skills needed at the beginnging. a. Do a lot of things that dont feel right. b. Do things dont scale. 3. Go to the users, and watch how they use it - so start with users near u who has that problems. 4. Startups take off because founders make them take off 5. Retention is the best way to determine product market fit. cont : 16.43

[@sethsamuel6357]

This is about one of the best talks I have received here! Gustaf nailed it! Thank you.

[@neerajnandan3351]

This is a gold mine.. please add each topic as a new series..

[@jpaulosp]

Great class about growth for startups!! Congrats YC team and Gustaf for the rich content.

[@nat.serrano]

Probably the best Ycombinator video ever

[@MightyAfricans]

So grateful for this channel. God bless.

[@tarunommadan]

Thank you Gustaf. This is very informative video. Some of the points discussed are very very helpful. Very good presentation. 👍 My gratitude to Y Combinator as well.

[@juniorv.c.1107]

Excellent. Concise and precise

[@facundomiranda3391]

Great Talk!!! I find it really full of value, i kind of knew the story about how Airbnb took off,but didnt know that the guys that went to took the photos were actually the founders!!! Now i get what you mean with " things that dont scale and feel unconventional" . The teaching of the metrics were brilliant too, im a fan of measuring everything and now i understand more about measuring what really matters to grow. Thanks a lot for this! Greetings from Argentina 🇦🇷👌

[@lepchenkov]

Thanks Gustaf for your useful advices!

[@tetroblanco3509]

Thank you Gustaf!!!!

[@SineadWalshMansfield]

Thank you, insightful 👍

[@martinstine]

Great one Gustaf. 🙌🙌🙌 YC

[@ustelgayrimenkulgelistirme8483]

Thank you ✪

[@andrewkiminhwan]

I work as a contractor for a major government agency, and its kind of sad we don't A/B test. We did an AB test, where we literally had one universe, but with two opposing colliding galaxies (aka. differing control/experiment on different pages of the same site, shown to all users)

[@Tubingonline1]

I loved this talk. I keep coming back to this channel every few days. You sure have a product market fit Y Combinator! But, hey, this is a free channel, so, this doesn't count, I guess. ;)

[@DJParkeriDreamCEO]

I love YC

[@OmerVexler]

Great talk!

[@spiraltag2470]

Gathered More Info ! Thanks !

[@bagmanCF]

Thank you for the insights

[@slaveofallah6452]

Massage chairs business are less expensive amongst all vending machine in market. 26. It really amazed me how big I earned for the first week of my vending machine business. This is really a good business idea

[@muhammadafif8798]

Thanks bro

[@Knowledge_Nuggies]

How does this whole "PMF = retention" formula work if it's a one-off business model that solves a problem for people which they typically only encounter once (or rarely) in their life? For example, stuff like ancestry research, intelligence tests, Gallup Strengths Finder etc. How/when do you know your product fits the market? NPS/CSAT? Also, more generally, why not use the market share of the target market as an indicator of PMF? If 3-5% are the early adopters needed to "cross the chasm" into the "growth stage" resp. the critical mass needed to go from push to pull marketing (M2M, network effects etc.) needed for expontential growth, why not use this market share as a potential threshold value for PMF? Is it too abstract? In a similar vein, I struggle with YC's general advice against paid marketing; to me, it seems very plausible to get closer to said 3-5% MS and build momentum faster and more linear and predictable in the target market this way. As long as the runway allows it...🤷‍♀️

[@philbland]

11:22 I think Riders is a typo and it should just be Rides. Isn't Ride the metric and the weekly/monthly frequency is how often the Rider takes a Ride - that would be consistent with Airbnb when a Guest books a Stay at least Annually

[@testadrome]

Exactly my thoughts. I don't think it makes sense to use bookings as a metric for AirBnb but not use rides as the core metric for Lyft. Isn't it the same thing?

[@10DGjoHnSon]

@@testadrome It does make sense to measure bookings in Airbnb they are "qualified leads". Stays are the "actual sales". So Airbnb, will just optimize their sales funnel on how they will convert Bookings into Stays. Its basically a chicken and egg situation.

[@jasonthomas5140]

There is in fact a typo at that timestamp. It's 'Monhtly'.

[@shutdwn18]

Question for anyone who can help. At -26:21 the graph for Lyft. The first plot point, week 0 is at 50% for 10 riders. Why isn’t that point at 100%?

[@Daily_Peptalks]

#MGMT1328885 I get this! Useful, simple and easy to understand. Yay! 1006

[@stephanielockett7541]

nice

[@atomicowl-]

Anybody know what metrics should startups like AirBnB measure that is VC approved?

[@joelstephenson8017]

Graph: 20% retained Him: really good!

[@MostCommentsAreFake-ud8by]

My product compares euthanasia services. How do I test the product retention rate ?

[@c.s1393]

Funny

[@AcharyaChanakya108]

Almost 7 billion potential users. 100% churn rate. Try to increase customer LTV by vertical integration, cross-sells & upsells.

[@mdebrahimchowdhury8061]

I am presenting...

[@irinayakubova346]

MGMT1328885 I get this! Useful, simple and easy to understand. Yay! 1018

[@harishmanmohan9858]

38:35 who's that indian at YC..

[@kushagrakhandelwal6303]

The founders of Meesho

[@princepatel6697]

@@kushagrakhandelwal6303 REALLY ?

[@justinfleagle]

22:00

[@samsammurphy]

Do things that don't scale paulgraham.com/ds.html

[@MatthewRiddett]

Just gonna leave this here. Further perspective: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHOyfZ5vqJ52n5Y

[@jangrunwaldt604]

Lmao the world is a weird place. A talk full of gold nuggets gets 86K views but bunch of trash gets millions ;)

[@webpro607]

keep repeating things again and again..