Growth is arguably the defining character of a startup, but finding early stage growth is surprisingly hard. Especially when the majority of advice comes from well-established companies with deep pockets and their own dedicated growth teams. So what's an early stage founder to do?
That's where The Growth Equation steps in. To act as your definitive guide to early stage growth.
I've worked with countless founders in my role as a startup advisor and VC. While every startup is different, the challenges they face are remarkably similar. How do you land your first 10/100/1,000 users? How do you perfect your Go to Market strategy? How do you create a Growth Engine that will power you to your first million in revenue and beyond? And how do you do it all while searching for Product-Market Fit?
I begin the book by highlighting the seven key factors I've found have an outsized effect on growth. These form the arguments of what I'm calling The Growth Equation. The equation itself is pretty simple. Maybe even bordering on obvious. However it's what you do with the information that matters.
Using the concepts of loops and funnels the book looks at every stage of the growth journey, from how to acquire, onboard and activate new customers; to how to embed your product in their day-to-day workflow and keep them coming back for more. During this process we look at whether you should take a Sales-Led, Marketing-Led or Product-Led approach to growth; how to price your product effectively; how you shape your team; and how to use concepts like Behavioral Science and PLG to drive growth.
While the book is designed to be read from cover to cover, plenty of founders have found it useful jumping straight to the topics which are bothering them the most. Trying to figure out your launch strategy? There's a whole chapter on GTM. Struggling with outbound sales, content marketing or product positioning? We've got in-depth sections on all these topics. Maybe you're struggling with activation, engagement and churn? We've got you covered. In fact whatever growth challenge you're facing, this book should have something for you.
Now It's worth saying that none of the concepts in this book are groundbreakingly new, so I'm not claiming to have invented some infallible new system (much to my accountants disappointment). In fact all these insights are available online if you want to go hunting for them. However as author and investor Jake Knapp explains "Sure, you could sign up for a dozen different newsletters, listen to a bunch of podcasts, and hire a head of growth. Or you could buy this book."
That's what the Growth Equation is really about. It's your one stop shop for all things growth. Or as one reviewer said "It's like having a startup coach in your pocket." My hope is that this will be the only book you need to reach your first $1M in revenue and beyond; for a fraction of the cost of a dedicated coach. So what are you waiting for?
About the Author :
Andy Budd is a design and product leader turned investor, advisor and coach. Andy currently works as a Venture Partner at Seedcamp-one of the most successful and best known early stage venture funds in Europe. As well as helping source and review new investments, Andy uses his knowledge of sales, marketing and product led growth to help portfolio companies prepare for Series A and beyond. Andy is using this experience as the basis for his new book "The Growth Equation." In it he aims to help founders find their early customers, land their first $1m ARR, and reach Product Market Fit.Prior to this Andy ran (and sold) Clearleft, an award winning design consultancy which pioneered the field of User Experience Design in the UK. During this time he helped companies like Just Eat, FarFetch, Rapha Cycling, Funding Circle, Mozilla, Virgin Atlantic, Penguin Books and Burberry make the most of their digital experience. Andy also helped popularise the field of Web Standards (HTML/CSS/JS) through his blog (one of the highest trafficked in the UK at the time), his conference talks and the publication of his best-selling book; CSS Mastery.Andy is a huge fan of conferences and loves sharing his design and product knowledge at events like SXSW, Awwwards and The Next Web. This led Andy to found several of his own events including dConstruct (the first digital design conference in the UK), UX London (the first UX conference in the UK) and Leading Design (the first design leadership conference of it's kind). He also co-founded the Brighton Digital Festival, a citywide celebration of digital culture attracting 40,000 visitors and over 190 events. Andy currently runs an online community of over 3,000 Heads, Directors and VPs of Design, and is a founding member of Adobe's Design Circle. These are just some of the reasons why he's appeared on both the Wired 100 and BIMA 100 lists.As well as working for Seedcamp, Andy advises a small number of founders on the concepts found in his book. He also runs a syndicate of design and product angels who love nothing more than supporting design and product led founders. When he's not supporting founders, he also coaches top performing design and product leaders. In his spare time Andy-a former dive instructor and "shark wrangler"-loves exploring underground cave systems and tropical atolls. As a recently qualified pilot, when he's not under the water he can be found soaring over the Sussex countryside in a rented Cessna 172.
Review :
"This book is the perfect encapsulation of everything there is to know about early stage startup growth. Sure, you could sign up for a dozen different newsletters, listen to a bunch of podcasts, and hire a head of growth. Or you could buy this book." -Jake Knapp, Author of Sprint
"Andy has a perfect mix of product, design, and founder thinking, at both startup and scale stages, so when he writes about growth and how design can enable it, you'd better take some notes." -Des Traynor, Co-Founder of Intercom
"Andy has written the essential guide to every major decision you'll need to make as an early stage founder. How are you going to attract your first customers? How are you going to differentiate yourself in the market? How are you going to figure out pricing? And most importantly, how are you going to reach Product-Market Fit?"-Kate Aronowitz, Google Ventures
"Andy offers a wealth of practical, actionable insights for anyone trying to build and grow a product or company. Filled with great examples that illustrate his points, this book is an entertaining and easy read that all founders and team members should have." -Irene Au, Partner at Khosla Ventures
"Early stage startups often overlook growth strategies because they're typically tailored for larger organizations. However, The Growth Equation provides a thorough guide to fueling startup growth, drawn from Andy's own experiences as a product advisor, investor, and coach." -Chetana Deorah, Ex-Design Director for Global Growth & Acquisition at Netflix
"Andy's done a masterful job distilling a ton of industry knowledge into clear, practical, actionable steps to get your startup off the ground and to its first $1MM. A must-read for all founders." -Jeff Gothelf, author of Lean UX
"The Growth Equation is like having a startup coach in your pocket. It fills all the knowledge gaps a founder might have, helping you see around the next bend and sets expectations for how you should be performing at every stage." -Philip Fierlinger, Co-Founder Xero and Upstock
"Andy has a clear understanding of what makes a successful product and where founders often go wrong. While the equation itself provides a 1,000-foot view, it's the individual details I loved. Practical advice on how to find your first customers, how to successfully onboard people, how to get them experiencing value as soon as possible, and how to keep them coming back for more. This is as close a step-by-step guide to startup success as I have seen. Great work." -Shreyas Doshi, Product Leader (ex-Stripe, Twitter, Google)
