Lenny Rachitsky, Lenny's Newsletter + Ex AirBnb // Growth Engines, Early Traction + Creator Economy

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Episode description

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Episode description

Lenny writes the #1 business newsletter on Substack (Lenny's Newsletter) and previously sold his company, Localmind, to Airbnb.

He then spent 7yrs at Airbnb leading product + growth teams and now angel invests + works as a full-time creator.

Let us know what you think on Twitter:

In this conversation you'll learn about:

– the racecar growth framework:
growth engines, turbo boosts, lubricants + fuel

– core growth engines:
performance marketing, virality, content + sales

– examples from Airbnb, Zapier, Superhuman, Wish, Casper + others

– benchmarks for user retention + types of virality

– 3 steps to getting early users

– growing a newsletter + the differences in approach for creators vs companies

Timestamps:

0:00:00 - Snippet + What We Cover

0:01:28 - Sponsor Break

0:02:17 - Lenny Intro + Background

0:07:38 - Scale of Newsletter

0:09:17 - Questions To Ask Yourself When Figuring Out Your Next Step

0:12:18 - Energy + The Struggle Of The Content Treadmill

0:13:31 - Early Days Of Airbnb

0:15:09 - Creating Something Remarkable

0:17:22 - Racecar Growth Framework - Who Is This For?

0:18:20 - Early vs Late Stage Growth

0:19:48 - Engine, Turbo Boosts, Lubricants + Fuel

0:20:05 - Growth Engines - virality, performance marketing, content, sales + bonus examples

0:24:11 - “1st time founders focus on product, 2nd time founders focus on distribution”

0:28:09 - Becoming The Best In The World At 1 or 2

0:28:38 - Airbnb vs Booking

0:29:16 - Performance Marketing

0:30:51 - Wish + Casper - Built On Performance Marketing

0:31:42 - Feasibility When Bootstrapping

0:32:31 - If You Should Be Performance Marketing Driven: 1) Generating Revenue From Users 2) Not Something Users Are Looking For

0:34:01 - Growth vs Brand Marketing

0:35:37 - When To Expand To The Next Engine + S Curve

0:36:56 - Examples Of Virality - Word-of-mouth, referrals, inviting friends, etc

0:40:22 - Bottoms Up vs Top Down Virality

0:41:31 - Knowing When You’re Going Viral - K Factor vs % of people who came in thru referral

0:42:33 - % Benchmark To Aim For

0:43:24 - Companies Who Are Suited To Viral Growth

0:43:48 - Clubhouse + FOMO

0:45:17 - User Generated Content Loop

0:47:29 - Data Driven SEO - Zapier + Thumbtack

0:49:11 - Editorial SEO + Figuring Out Content Strategy

0:50:31 - Superhuman Example

0:51:13 - Desired Outcomes, Primary + Secondary KPIs

0:52:43 - Sales Channel

0:55:19 - Turbo Boosts + Lubricants

0:56:52 - Power Of Events

0:58:37 - Retention + Conversion

1:00:41 - Activation: Using Product For Its Core Purpose

1:02:03 - Superhuman , Creators + The Customers Who Care

1:05:38 - User Retention Benchmarks

1:07:44 - Common Pitfalls

1:09:36 - Getting First 1000 newsletter subscribers

1:11:20 - 3 steps to getting early users

1:14:45 - Creators vs Companies - Finding Core Users

1:19:27 - Would You Still Be Doing This With 1000 Subs?

1:20:55 - 5 “Jobs To Be Done” Of Content

1:21:49 - Newsletter Discoverability

1:23:42 - What Gives You Energy

1:25:23 - Airbnb Job vs Creator Life

1:26:22 - Tim Urban on Content That Spreads

1:27:18 - Creators: Value vs Support

1:29:22 - Decision To Stay On Substack

1:31:31 - Knowing What To Write About

1:35:57 - Longer-Term Plan

Thank you to our sponsors:

AppSumo - the marketplace entrepreneurs trust to buy and sell the products that grow small businesses into name brands:
https://www.appsumo.com

Space - the easiest way to engage your team over audio:
http://www.JoinSpace.co