The How Things Grow Podcast

How Things Grow will take a break for now. As the more perceptive of you might have noticed, a lot of our energy has recently shifted from How Things Grow to our other podcast The Mobile User Acquisition Show. While the longer form profiles that we got to do in How Things Grow were very fun and satisfying, it’s just been hard to run two shows while we run the business that pays our bills. For now, How Things Grow will take a break - and we aren't sure when we’ll be back (although of course, all past episodes will continue to stay online). 

I’m super super thankful for those of you who listened, those of you who wrote in with comments and feedback - and of course our fabulous guests. Thank you for making my first foray into podcasting fun! Of course, the party will go on - our podcast Mobile User Acquisition Show has had some very fun and fascinating episodes, and we hope you’ll come check us out on mobileuseracquisitionshow.com, on iTunes, Overcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasting fix.

My guest today is Liam Martin - and this is a conversation about a topic that is near & dear to my heart - remote work. Liam is one of the world’s foremost experts on remote work, having started a remote-only company more than a decade before it became cool to do so. He founded Time Doctor and Staff.com, doing some tremendously impactful work around productivity for remote work before founding the Running Remote conference, a real-life, non-remote conference about remote work. Liam has seen remote work up close from its earliest days - and has also seen nearly everything there is to be seen around remote work - be it culture, tracking, productivity and growth - and this is a conversation that I’m very excited to have.

Key Highlights:

• How remote work was referred to 15 years ago - and how it’s changing.
• Why Liam chose remote work as a model for his business - and how he solved problems that are currently solved by tools like Zoom and Slack.
• What Liam recommends as the first step for a small company that is considering going remote - and the resources he recommends. Why measurement is crucial for a remote company.
• How Liam recommends setting up a remote culture for a team that is new to it
• How Liam recommends approaching hiring in a remote context - and what he screens and filters for.
• How a remote team’s infrastructure & processes have to change as a team grows.
• The HR process that Liam’s team has built to ensure retention. The different compensation policies that are available to remote companies.
• What inspired the Running Remote conference - and how Liam attracted speakers and attendees for its first edition. 

Check out the full transcript and show notes here:
https://howthingsgrow.co/the-rise-of-remote-work-with-liam-martin-co-founder-of-timedoctor-co-organizer-in-running-remote/

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Get more goodies here:
http://MobileUserAcquisitionShow.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

My guest today is Hila Qu. Hila is the former VP of growth at Acorns - and there are very many reasons I’ve so admired her work. Hila had a background in biology - and with nothing in her background that was relevant to growth, she started work at GrowthHackers, where she not only picked up the methodology of growth from Sean Ellis but also became very very proficient at experiment-driven growth. She wrote the series of articles ‘A growth practitioner’s 90 day plan’, which she herself used for her job search after GrowthHackers. She began working on experiments and retention at Acorns - and in a few years grew to be the VP of growth. In this interview, Hila talks not only about the pivotal moments in her career but also breaks down how she’s followed her curiosity and sought out challenges - and how this has always helped her break into spaces or positions where she’s started off being almost an outsider.


KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• What inspired Hila to start working at GrowthHackers.com – and what they saw in her.
• Some of the things Hila learnt about growth that were essentially life principles. How Hila developed a mental model for career growth from working with Sean Ellis. 
• What inspired Hila’s article “A growth practitioner’s first 90-day plan.”
• How Hila evaluated Acorns to see if they would be open to growth ideas and processes even though they didn’t have any.
• How Hila started introducing her ideas – and went after early wins. The two directions Hila recommends thinking around for getting early wins. What Hila’s learning plan looked like.
• What Hila’s day is structured like – at GrowthHackers and Acorns.
• How Hila accessed leadership positions at Acorns. How Hila learnt the ’science’ of leadership.
• How Hila picked KPIs around her personal OKR of being 20% tougher.

Check out the full transcript and show notes here:
https://howthingsgrow.co/how-to-trigger-massive-career-shifts-by-following-your-curiosity-with-hila-quformer-vp-of-growth-at-acorns/

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Get more goodies here:
http://MobileUserAcquisitionShow.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

My guest today is Noah Rosenberg, the founder and CEO of Narratively. Narratively is a publication that I’ve both written for - and have been very very impressed by for some of the pioneering work they’ve done. Narratively very much defined a niche for themselves in pioneering long-form human interest journalism in an age of diminishing attention spans. They not only continued to bring out original long-form stories - but also developed a unique monetization model of a content studio that has helped them thrive in an age when many journalism outlets are facing existential challenges.

In this interview we dive into Noah’s journey from being a journalist to a journalism platform creator, talk about how he validated and launched Narratively, what drives audience growth for long-form articles, how Narratively’s unique monetization model has helped both keep it ad-free and allowed its writers to make good money. This interview presents lessons that apply for far beyond long-form journalism - and I’m excited to share this with you today.


KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• Noah’s early career as a journalist – and how he was drawn to larger human interest stories & underreported themes during his work in Queens and in South Africa.
• The sort of market research that Noah did to validate his idea of a human interest publication – and the response they got to Narratively on Kickstarter.
• How Narratively transitioned from being a New York focused publication to being global.
• How Narratively planned to use the $53k that it had raised in its Kickstarter campaign.
• Why Narratively didn’t adopt the subscription model or an ad supported model.
• How Narratively’s partnership with Warner Brothers materialized.
• How Narratively thinks about the relationship between its branded content side and its editorial side.
• How stories on Narratively.com get traffic.
• Why Narratively had challenges raising funding.

Check out the full transcript and show notes here:
https://howthingsgrow.co/how-to-launch-a-long-form-journalism-publication-in-an-era-of-diminishing-attention-spans-with-noah-rosenberg-ceo-at-narratively/

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Get more goodies here:
http://MobileUserAcquisitionShow.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

My guest today is Jabari Johnson, the founder of COLORS Worldwide, a live events company that produces parties and music events across 45 cities in the United States. This is a fascinating conversation - both for Jabari’s personal story as well as for his insights on scaling a live event and filling up rooms and halls - at scale. From his earliest days when he hustled to interview stars like Nicki Minaj and Justin Bieber before they became famous to how he thoughtfully considers pricing and marketing decisions for COLORS and R&B Only, Jabari’s work provides a fascinating window into how it’s absolutely possible to run top-notch fun events - at scale.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• How Jabari’s Youtube videos got him his first job.
• How Jabari would spread the word about his Youtube videos on his college campus, and how he made some of these videos viral.
• How Jabari’s experiences on the road led to his first business COLORS – and what his first parties were like.
• How Jabari filled up the room with 200-300 people by using TwitPic to build social proof for their event’s pics.
• Why Jabari wasn’t charging money for his early events.
• How it became evident to Jabari that these parties and events could be a scaled business – and how he learned to delegate & grow his team.

Check out the full transcript and show notes here:
https://howthingsgrow.co/how-to-blow-up-a-party-with-jabari-johnson-founder-at-colors-worldwide/

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Get more goodies here:
http://MobileUserAcquisitionShow.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

My guest today is Jon Hook, the CRO of Homa Games, the publishers behind hit hypercasual games like Tower Color, Tiny Cars, Balls vs. Lasers - and more. Jon has held a myriad of roles in mobile marketing before Homa - including being a co-founder of the mobile marketing agency Odyssey Mobile, the Head of Mobile & Digital Investment at MediaCom - and VP EMEA for Brand and Agencies at AdColony. 

In today’s interview, we dive into the fascinating world of hypercasual games. If you’ve even casually followed the appstores over the last few years, you’ll have seen seemingly simplistic games like Helix Jump, Tiny Cars - and others at the top of the appstore charts. What is as astounding as these games’ ascent is their staying power. In this interview, Jon talks about the rise of the hypercasual phenomenon, the drivers & forces powering it, what lies ahead - and offers some fascinating insights into one of the more unexpected occupants of the appstores today.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• What are some of the characteristics of hyper-casual and what the hit recipe for hyper-casual games is.
• What factors have accelerated the emergence of hyper-casual games in recent years.
• How Jon started paying attention to the hypercasual space – and when he realized this wasn’t a fad.
• Why user acquisition and monetization are run by the same teams in hyper-casual games.
• What some of the common mistakes made by hypercasual developers are – and what some of the easy fixes are.
• What some of the challenges with using programmatic for hyper-casual games are.
• Why hypercasual can be a mass marketing channel.

Check out the full transcript and show notes here:
https://howthingsgrow.co/how-hyper-casual-games-took-over-the-app-stores-with-jon-hookcro-at-homa-games/

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Get more goodies here:
http://MobileUserAcquisitionShow.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

My guest today is Brian Balfour - and there could be no one better than Brian to kick off the third season of How Things Grow. 

Brian is seen as one of the most influential people in growth today - he has to his credit some truly astounding accomplishments in growth. He started his career building a social networking site for college students. He then founded a digital goods company & subsequently an ed-tech company. After this, he became the VP of Growth at Hubspot, overseeing & systematizing some tremendous growth that had been driven, astonishingly, by content. It was during this phase that he started writing his very popular blog. He started what was then a side project called ‘Silicon Valley Business Review’ with Andrew Chen. The Silicon Valley Business Review has since grown into Reforge, which is now a definitive source of education around growth for experienced professionals. In this fascinating conversation, Brian not only talks about his own experiences but also dives into how Reforge is changing how education around growth is imparted today, and is redefining many traditional paradigms of executive education. What I find truly astounding is how Brian applies growth frameworks and loops to Reforge’s business. He breaks down how these growth loops are applicable to Reforge - in a section that I find very very instructive. 

This is very much a masterclass on growth - one taught by the very best in the business.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• Why getting an external unbiased coach was the most important thing that Brian did in his career.
• What Brian’s experience was as a founder of an early social network – and subsequently as a founder of a digital goods company & then of an ed-tech company.
• Why Brian began to write – and the benefits he got from his own writing
• How Hubspot’s content strategy was one of the key drivers behind their IPO
• The gap that Brian noticed when doing 1:1s for his team and having to look up recommendations for professional development – and the side project it inspired – the ’Silicon Valley Business Review’.
• Is Reforge a ’service’ company or a ‘product’ company? Are its live experiences antithetical to scale?
• How Reforge selects people for ‘fit’, even if it means saying no to short term revenue.
• How growth loops apply to Reforge’s business. 

Check out the full transcript and show notes here:
https://howthingsgrow.co/how-to-grow-a-growth-education-business-with-brian-balfour/

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Get more goodies here:
http://MobileUserAcquisitionShow.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

I’m very excited to present to you the third season of How Things Grow! Thank you so much for the kind words, ratings and reviews for the episodes so far. As you perhaps know, each episode is a labor of love - and every rating and review matters a ton.

If you’re new here, How Things Grow tells the stories of the people who help companies, technologies and economic systems take off.  Each episode features an interview with one of the leading growth practitioners, entrepreneurs, or experts or historians in the world.   

In this season, you’ll hear the story of how this growth leader applied growth principles to advanced career education, the story of how a company hosting parties grew dramatically, about how hyper casual games are taking over our phone screens, how a long form journalism startup carved out a niche for itself in an age of diminishing attention spans - and so many other stories that are coming up in the new season of How Things Grow. 

If you get any joy and pleasure from these episodes, please subscribe to How Things Grow on iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast - or wherever else you get your podcast fix. Please also consider leaving a review, for this is very much a labor of love. I hope you enjoy listening to the show as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it together. I look forward to presenting to you the first episode of the coming season of How Things Grow next Monday! 

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Get more goodies here:
http://MobileUserAcquisitionShow.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

Hi everyone -   Welcome to How Things Grow. I’ve been very stoked to present some amazing stories as a part of season 2 of How Things Grow.   As all good things do, this season has run its course. I’m taking a step back to reorient, readjust - and come back with a whole new season of how things grow. We’re already begun preparing for the next season. We have some amazing speakers lined up - and I can’t wait to get this out to you.   Stay tuned - we’re going to be back very very soon for season 3 of How Things Grow.

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Get more goodies here:
http://MobileUserAcquisitionShow.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

My guest today is Sahil Lavingia, and this is an incredibly powerful, honest & inspiring episode. Sahil is today the founder & CEO of Gumroad, a platform that helps creators get paid for the work they do. What is significantly more impressive though is Sahil’s journey to where he is today. Sahil was in many ways a prodigy as a teenager, working on apps & websites - and making $100k by age 15. He joined the University of Southern California, only to drop out after a semester to join the then fledgling platform Pinterest to build their iOS app as employee #2. Within a year, he left Pinterest - before his shares vested - to found the company that he hoped would be his magnum opus, what he announced on Twitter as a ‘billion dollar company idea’ before he launched it. This was Gumroad - and for a while he seemed to be a man who, at age 19, could do no wrong. Until things started to go wrong. Growth began to stall. Sahil and his team put their soul into the business - and they couldn’t do what it took to hit the targets they need to hit to make it a venture-scaleable business. In what was a wrenching time, he had to lay off three fourths of his company - and find his own path forward. This is Sahil’s story - about how things don’t always grow, and how sometimes that’s ok - but only if you make your peace with it.


KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• Sahil’s early work in design and development as a teenager that led him to make his first $100,000 and become financially independent.
• The path that led Sahil to be described as the most interesting teenager in Silicon Valley and the #2 employee at Pinterest, less than two years after he started learning to code. 
• Why Sahil left Pinterest less than a year after joining, before his stocks vested  and what about Gumroad inspired him to keep working on it.
• Why Sahil decided to go deep on Gumroad rather than seek out his next new project. How writing and painting helped him cultivate the patience that let him do this.
• Sahil’s cold email strategy of acquiring his first few customers – and why it was effective for him.
• Why Sahil was obsessed with becoming a billionaire from early on.
• How Sahil coped with the fact that Gumroad would never become a venture-bankable billion dollar company.
• How Sahil thought about ‘front loading his retirement’ why ‘diversifying his identity’ was crucial.
• What inspired Sahil to write the Medium piece about his journey.
• The reframing of impact that was crucial to Sahil’s coping with the change in circumstances for his business.
• The difference in lifestyle in Provo, Utah, compared to San Francisco.

Check out the full transcript and show notes here:
https://howthingsgrow.co/how-things-dont-grow-reflections-on-not-being-a-billionaire-with-sahil-lavingiaceo-at-gumroad/

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Get more goodies here:
http://MobileUserAcquisitionShow.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog