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. From the founder of CMX and author of The Business of Belonging, a practical framework for deciding whether to build community... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~25 min read A Founder's Guide to Community David Spinks In 7 answers
  2. A blunt, practical guide from Demand Curve's founder on which paid and organic channels fit which business, and why most... julian.com Article · Long-form guide Startup Handbook: Customer Acquisition Channels Julian Shapiro In 6 answers
  3. Lenny distills how the best product teams pick a single North Star that captures real customer value and drives the whole... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~20 min read The North Star Playbook & Choosing Your Growth Metrics Lenny Rachitsky In 5 answers
  4. Justin Welsh built a multi-million-dollar solo business purely on a systematized personal-brand engine; his free, no-fluff... justinwelsh.me Article · Weekly newsletter + archive The Saturday Solopreneur (Justin Welsh) & LinkedIn Content System Justin Welsh In 5 answers
  5. The definitive playbook for network and community-led products, drawn from Andrew Chen's a16z experience and interviews with... Harper Business Book · Book (~368 pages) The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects Andrew Chen In 5 answers
  6. Based on studying 100+ consumer companies, Lenny shows that lasting growth comes from becoming world-class at one growth... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~20 min read The Growth Engine: Kickstarting & Scaling a Consumer Business (Step 6) Lenny Rachitsky In 4 answers
  7. Concrete retention benchmarks and cohort-analysis methods gathered from dozens of top companies, so you can tell a healthy... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~20 min read How the Best Companies Measure and Improve Retention Lenny Rachitsky In 4 answers
  8. The definitive playbook on distribution, it catalogs all 19 channels and gives you the Bullseye framework to systematically... Portfolio / Penguin Book · book (~240 pages) Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares In 3 answers
  9. The canonical book on making community a competitive advantage, from someone who trained community teams at Facebook, Airbnb,... Wiley Book · Book (~256 pages) The Business of Belonging David Spinks In 3 answers
  10. Battle-tested referral advice from the person who turned Airbnb's host referral program into its biggest driver of supply... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~20 min read Building a Referrals Program Lenny Rachitsky In 3 answers
  11. Julian Shapiro's growth handbook frames brand and messaging as downstream of who you're for and what you replace, practical... julian.com Article · 20 min read Positioning (Startup Handbook: brand and marketing foundations) Julian Shapiro In 2 answers
  12. The canonical explanation of why linear funnels break and self-reinforcing growth loops compound, from the team that trains... Reforge Blog Article · ~15 min read Growth Loops Are the New Funnels Brian Balfour & Reforge team In 2 answers
  13. The original, still-used test for whether you have product-market fit, from the person who coined 'growth hacking' and grew... Startup Marketing / GrowthHackers Article · ~10 min read The Sean Ellis Product-Market Fit Survey (40% Test) Sean Ellis In 2 answers
  14. The definitive explanation of why every marketing channel decays over time, from an a16z general partner who wrote 650+ essays... andrewchen.com Article · ~8 min read The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs Andrew Chen In 2 answers
  15. A myth-busting piece showing most 'viral' growth is actually broadcast reach, so you can stop praying for virality and engineer... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~12 min read Virality Is a Myth (Mostly) Lenny Rachitsky In 2 answers
  16. This is the canonical argument that you do not need a mass market to build something real, you need a small number of people... The Technium (kk.org) Essay · ~15 min read 1,000 True Fans Kevin Kelly In 2 answers
  17. If your worry is whether the product itself is the problem, the honest signal is the shape of your retention curve, and Balfour... brianbalfour.com Essay The Never Ending Road To Product Market Fit Brian Balfour In 2 answers
  18. This is the piece that named the problem you are asking about: the difference between numbers that make you feel good and... The Blog of Tim Ferriss Article · 10 minute read Vanity Metrics vs. Actionable Metrics Eric Ries In 2 answers
  19. Once you know your curve should flatten, the next question is where it should flatten, and this piece answers it with concrete... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~10 min read What is good retention? Lenny Rachitsky In 2 answers
  20. This is the clearest walk-through of the most famous activation metric ever, Facebook's "7 friends in 10 days", and how it was... Mode Article Facebook's "Aha" Moment Was Simpler Than You Think Benn Stancil In 2 answers
  21. This is the clearest statement of the argument you need before you touch either lever: retention is not one metric among many,... OpenView Essay Retention Is the King of Growth (Brian Balfour, 500 Startups talk) Brian Balfour In 2 answers
  22. This is the essay that names the exact problem: most online writing blurs together because it is neither personal,... perell.com Essay · Long read The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online David Perell In 2 answers
  23. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  24. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham

Show the next 24

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 →