[dcphp-dev] Re: New Silicon valley trend: Growth hacker

Mehmet,

It sounds like you are viewing this from a consulting lens. That is not the trend. Truth be told, this isn't a new thing either.  I don't know where the discussion about growth hacking started, but it is closely related to the early stage startup founder team composition discussion.  To be clear, an early stage startup for the purpose of this discussion is not a consulting firm, not a service provider, not a government contractor, not an interactive agency that builds websites or web apps for other companies.   We're talking about early stage software, web or mobile app product startups that are building something that sells product to either an enterprise or consumers.  In most cases this applies to consumer focused startups.  And to be even more specific, we are talking about the trendy developer lead startups such as ones that might try to get into Y Combinator or Tech Stars or 500 Startups.  

Early stage startup founder teams in these circles are encouraged to have three people: the hacker (developer), the hustler (the customer acquisition person - does customer acquisition), and the hipster (optional in some models, but becoming more mainstream as far as these discussions are going). 

The key to growth hacking is customer acquisition, retention and growth.  The best illustration of this that I know of is a slideshare presentation by Dave McClure, the founder of 500 startups:  
http://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/startup-metrics-for-pirates-seedcamp-sept-2009   

To take things a a bit further, it would be a really bad idea for an early stage startup to outsource customer acquisition to a development firm.  This is core to their business and financial model.  So the notion of hiring a consulting firm to do growth hacking is a really bad idea, but the idea of getting help from a freelancer who has experience with early stage customer acquisition might work provided it is someone really entrepreneurial AND someone who has some of the type of customer acquisition and distribution experience that Dave McClure talks about in the Startup Metrics for pirates presentation I mentioned above.

There is some additional background this in a related post here:
http://socialmatchbox.com/wp/2013/04/24/should-i-hire-a-growth-hacker-for-my-startup/

On Thursday, April 11, 2013 1:20:51 PM UTC-4, mehmet y wrote:

I know of a few firms in the area that sell strategy with their PHP products and services as a package deal.

Seems the latest trend in Silicon Valley is to couple engineering expertise with marketing strategy resulting in:

The new beast - the "growth hacker".  Let the search engine be your guide.

This has created a whole new breed of engineers ready to consult with you to provide unique opportunities to find a disruptive marketing techniques to compensate for what they present as the law of "diminishing clicks".

For firms that don't just create websites but offer strategic consulting (such as a few on this list), I think its time to prepare your understanding of this trend and be prepared to demonstrate how you already think disruptively and account for the "law of diminishing clicks" when it makes sense.

That said, uniquely acquiring volume spurts doesn't secure a product/service with good usability, privacy, security, policies or retention strategies.   What is more is that every company pivots its services as it learns - trying to hack growth I imagine negates a critical feedback loop if successful.  Without these things it just seems like a new way to burn investment money potentially prematurely. 

If you ask me, startups are their prey; the idea that even a ten percent increase in success is worth the money, and I think for what it is worth it may be a dangerous game.  I'd rather brainstorm with folks at SCORE working with the SBA or someone with domain expertise before anyone else, but hey that is me.

Any thoughts? Have I missed anything?  How do you feel about this?

--
~M

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