Grow & market

Channels, metrics, and loops that turn early traction into growth.

What founders use for grow & market, ranked by how many answers lean on it.

  1. A tactical conversation on growth, retention and building a personal audience as distribution, from the founder of Demand Curve... Lenny's Podcast Podcast · ~90 min episode Building an Audience Before You Need One (Julian Shapiro on Lenny's Podcast) Julian Shapiro & Lenny Rachitsky In 5 answers
  2. Data and tool pages tell you what WhatsApp can do; founder stories tell you what it actually took. This show interviews Indian... Spotify Podcast · Episodes about 25 minutes The Indian D2C Playbook Isaac John Wesley In 2 answers
  3. Long-form, candid interviews with Indian founders and investors on how they actually grew, distributed and built brand, one of... The Neon Show / Neon Fund Podcast · 200+ episodes The Neon Show (100x Entrepreneur Podcast) Siddhartha Ahluwalia
  4. This is the most honest, unvarnished archive of solo founders walking through exactly how they built and sold real software,... Indie Hackers Podcast · Ongoing series, most episodes 45 to 90 minutes Indie Hackers Podcast Courtland Allen and Channing Allen
  5. Arvid Kahl bootstrapped and sold a real business, so this is a founder talking tradeoffs, not theory. He argues for finding an... Indie Hackers Podcast · About 60 to 70 minutes Indie Hackers Podcast #212: Arvid Kahl on Building an Audience Before a Product Courtland Allen (host), Arvid Kahl (guest)
  6. A founder-voice conversation, not a metrics lecture, on why a pretty LTV:CAC ratio can still sink you if the cash takes years... The SaaS Podcast (SaaS Club) Podcast How to Calculate CAC, LTV, Retention and Churn (Startups Unplugged with Paul Orlando) Omer Khan (host), Paul Orlando (guest)
  7. Most influencer content is agency sales copy, so we picked an Indian D2C conversation where the guests run an influencer... Stellaris Venture Partners Podcast · podcast episode D2C Dialogues #2: Influencer marketing as a performance channel Stellaris Venture Partners (with Apaksh Gupta, One Impression, and Sarvesh Shashi, Sarva)
  8. Thormeier interviews founders and operators who chose to put their own face at the top of the funnel, so you hear the lived... Apple Podcasts Podcast · Ongoing series, episodes ~30 to 60 min The Founder-Led Marketing Show Finn Thormeier
  9. Instead of one more listicle of voice tips, this is working writers walking through how their own voice actually formed, mess... Apple Podcasts Podcast · Ongoing series, roughly hour-long episodes How I Write (podcast) David Perell
  10. The pile-ons women founders face online often turn personal in a way male founders rarely deal with, and that sharper edge is... Female Founder World Podcast · About a 30 minute listen What No One's Saying About This Viral Founder Takedown Jasmine Garnsworthy
  11. Arvid Kahl built and sold a SaaS, then grew a real audience of tens of thousands almost entirely online, from outside any... Apple Podcasts Podcast · Ongoing series, most episodes 20 to 40 minutes The Bootstrapped Founder Arvid Kahl
  12. Patrick O'Keefe has managed online communities for over 20 years and interviews people doing the unglamorous work, so this is... Community Signal Podcast Community Signal Patrick O'Keefe
  13. Each episode sits a working community professional down to talk about the worst advice they followed and what it actually cost... Community Marketing Revolution Podcast · Episodes run roughly 30 to 45 minutes Bad Community Advice Seth Resler
  14. Justin Jackson builds from Vernon, a small town in British Columbia, not a metro tech hub, and he started the MegaMaker... justinjackson.ca Podcast · Ongoing show, episodes ~30 to 60 min Justin Jackson's podcasts (MegaMaker, Build your SaaS, Product People) Justin Jackson

The questions

Growth fundamentals & metrics 18

Measure what matters, grow what compounds.

What growth metrics should I actually track as an early-stage startup? 3 → How do I know if I have product-market fit before I try to grow? 2 → What is a growth loop and why is it better than a funnel? 2 → What are the 'four fits' I need before growth compounds? 2 → How should I set up a simple growth model or dashboard? 3 → All 18 questions in Growth fundamentals & metrics →
Paid acquisition basics 18

Buy customers profitably, or don't buy them.

Should I even be running paid ads at this stage? 2 → How do I know if my paid ads are actually profitable? 2 → What makes a paid ad actually convert? 2 → How do I pick which paid channel to start with? 2 → How much budget do I need to test a paid channel properly? 2 → All 18 questions in Paid acquisition basics →
Social media & personal brand 18

Build an audience before you need one.

Why should I build a personal brand as a founder? 2 → Which platform should I focus on to build an audience? 2 → What should I actually post if I'm not a natural writer? 2 → How do I turn an audience into actual customers or signups? 2 → How long does it take for content and personal brand to pay off? 2 → All 18 questions in Social media & personal brand →
Community-led growth 18

Turn users into a movement.

What is community-led growth and is it right for my startup? 2 → How do I start a community from zero? 3 → How do I solve the cold-start / chicken-and-egg problem for a network or community? 2 → How do I keep a community engaged instead of dead? 2 → How do I tie community to real business outcomes? 2 → All 18 questions in Community-led growth →
Retention, referral & virality 18

Keep them, and let them bring friends.

Why is retention more important than acquisition? 2 → How do I actually improve retention and make my product habit-forming? 2 → When should I build a referral program? 2 → Is my product going to go viral, and how do I make it more shareable? 2 → How do I measure and analyze retention properly? 2 → All 18 questions in Retention, referral & virality →
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →