Growth at Slack – an overview

Fareed Mosavat tweeted an interesting thread about the approach to growth at Slack. Given that it's a "enterprise software startup growing at consumer startup numbers", we should all pay attention to what he said. 1/ So.. I take that back. This is actually a really big deal. Let's talk about the 85k customers number. Two …

Analysing network effects

What is the impact of the network effect on a startup? How to project your network effects over time?  Li Jin and D'arcy Coolican wrote about the dynamics of network effects.   There are three key factors that affect the dynamic of the network effect, namely: a) the value proposition; b) the users / inventory; c) …

Engagement loops

Nope, not talking about the jewellery couples exchange when they decide to get married 😬 For network-based products, the engagement of one user will create conditions for the increased engagement of other users. With non-network products, current engagement will benefit future engagement of the same user. "This is why achieving network density and easy content …

Growth leading indicators

The problem: some of the metrics "we" (as an industry) follow, monitor, and praise, are lagging metrics. E.g. MAU show you what is happening at the moment, but don't help you predict the future. Full article here; cliff notes below. Andrew Chen (follow, follow, follow) defends the need for leading indicators and a more predictive model. …

Enterprise sw and growth

Reforge is a kick-ass source for growth knowledge. Bela Stepanova, from Box (Director of Product Management) shares her thoughts on enterprise software and growth: "These days, if users aren’t using a product, the real switching cost is logistical. Imagine this - a company installs Salesforce, but the team doesn’t really adopt it - no one’s …