Lenny Rachitsky, Lenny's Newsletter + Ex AirBnb // Growth Engines, Early Traction + Creator Economy

Lenny writes the #1 business newsletter on Substack (Lenny's Newsletter) and previously sold his company, Localmind, to Airbnb.

He then spent 7yrs at Airbnb leading product + growth teams and now angel invests + works as a full-time creator.

Watch + subscribe on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/aogsYWWnq60

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Let us know what you think on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/bzaidi​

https://twitter.com/lennysan

In this conversation you'll learn about:

– the racecar growth framework:
growth engines, turbo boosts, lubricants + fuel

– core growth engines:
performance marketing, virality, content + sales

– examples from Airbnb, Zapier, Superhuman, Wish, Casper + others

– benchmarks for user retention + types of virality 

– 3 steps to getting early users

– growing a newsletter + the differences in approach for creators vs companies

 

Timestamps:

0:00:00 - Snippet + What We Cover 0:01:28 - Sponsor Break 0:02:17 - Lenny Intro + Background 0:07:38 - Scale of Newsletter 0:09:17 - Questions To Ask Yourself When Figuring Out Your Next Step 0:12:18 - Energy + The Struggle Of The Content Treadmill 0:13:31 - Early Days Of Airbnb 0:15:09 - Creating Something Remarkable 0:17:22 - Racecar Growth Framework - Who Is This For? 0:18:20 - Early vs Late Stage Growth 0:19:48 - Engine, Turbo Boosts, Lubricants + Fuel 0:20:05 - Growth Engines - virality, performance marketing, content, sales + bonus examples 0:24:11 - “1st time founders focus on product, 2nd time founders focus on distribution” 0:28:09 - Becoming The Best In The World At 1 or 2 0:28:38 - Airbnb vs Booking 0:29:16 - Performance Marketing 0:30:51 - Wish + Casper - Built On Performance Marketing 0:31:42 - Feasibility When Bootstrapping 0:32:31 - If You Should Be Performance Marketing Driven: 1) Generating Revenue From Users 2) Not Something Users Are Looking For 0:34:01 - Growth vs Brand Marketing 0:35:37 - When To Expand To The Next Engine + S Curve 0:36:56 - Examples Of Virality - Word-of-mouth, referrals, inviting friends, etc 0:40:22 - Bottoms Up vs Top Down Virality 0:41:31 - Knowing When You’re Going Viral - K Factor vs % of people who came in thru referral 0:42:33 - % Benchmark To Aim For 0:43:24 - Companies Who Are Suited To Viral Growth 0:43:48 - Clubhouse + FOMO 0:45:17 - User Generated Content Loop 0:47:29 - Data Driven SEO - Zapier + Thumbtack 0:49:11 - Editorial SEO + Figuring Out Content Strategy 0:50:31 - Superhuman Example 0:51:13 - Desired Outcomes, Primary + Secondary KPIs 0:52:43 - Sales Channel 0:55:19 - Turbo Boosts + Lubricants 0:56:52 - Power Of Events 0:58:37 - Retention + Conversion 1:00:41 - Activation: Using Product For Its Core Purpose 1:02:03 - Superhuman , Creators + The Customers Who Care 1:05:38 - User Retention Benchmarks 1:07:44 - Common Pitfalls 1:09:36 - Getting First 1000 newsletter subscribers 1:11:20 - 3 steps to getting early users 1:14:45 - Creators vs Companies - Finding Core Users 1:19:27 - Would You Still Be Doing This With 1000 Subs? 1:20:55 - 5 “Jobs To Be Done” Of Content 1:21:49 - Newsletter Discoverability 1:23:42 - What Gives You Energy 1:25:23 - Airbnb Job vs Creator Life 1:26:22 - Tim Urban on Content That Spreads 1:27:18 - Creators: Value vs Support 1:29:22 - Decision To Stay On Substack 1:31:31 - Knowing What To Write About 1:35:57 - Longer-Term Plan

 

Thank you to our sponsors:

AppSumo - the marketplace entrepreneurs trust to buy and sell the products that grow small businesses into name brands:
https://www.appsumo.com

Space - the easiest way to engage your team over audio:
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