Gave this talk to the Greylock Discovery fund companies on Dec 12, 2011.

1. Thoughts on growth
Josh Elman @joshelman
December 12, 2011

2. Growth circa 1995

3. Growth today

4. Growth today

5. Twitter Case Study
1. Defining the problem...
2. Segmenting and measuring
Curious -> Casual -> Core
3. Guiding users up the “ladder of engagement”

9. Someone who Tweets?

10. Someone who Tweets?
Some
one w
to sta ho wa
y up t nts
friend o date
s? with

11. Someone who Tweets?
Some
one w
to sta ho wa
y up t nts
friend o date
s? with
Someone who cares
about realtime news?

12. Someone who Tweets?
Some
one w
to sta ho wa
y up t nts
friend o date
s? with
Some one who wants to
know what their friends
Someone who cares had for breakfast
about realtime news?

13. Someone who Tweets?
e who wants to tell everyone
Someon
what they had for breakfast
Some
one w
to sta ho wa
y up t nts
friend o date
s? with
Some one who wants to
know what their friends
Someone who cares had for breakfast
about realtime news?

14. Someone who wants to
know what’s happening
in their world

15. @dickc Dick Costolo
Our mission: instantly connect people everywhere
to what’s most meaningful to them.
Feb 14, 2011 from Barcelona, Spain

19. Measure the things
that matter
credit: wwarby on Flickr

20. How do you know if you have
visitors or regulars?
Visitors Regulars
just use once use daily/monthly
come via a prompt come directly
don’t remember
top of mind
your name

22. What should you look at daily?
Metric Description
new users signed up yesterday
active users used the service in last month
inactive users last used service 1 month ago
resurrected users first use in over 1 month

23. core
casual
curious

24. State of the userbase
CORE
CURIOUS NEW CASUAL
COLD

25. User Accounting
• Measure users like revenue and cost (+/-)
• Track deltas in users in and out of the system over time
(+) New User Registrations (+) 20,000
(+) Resurrected Users (+) 950
(-) Deactivations (-) 50
(-) Gone Inactive (-) 10,000
------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------
(+/-) Net Change (+) 11,000 (4mm MAU/year)
------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------
(+) Remained Active (+) 1,000,000
------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------
Net Active Users 1,011,000 total users

26. Accounting for growth negative growth

27. Find your “Aha” moment

28. Following more than 30 accounts 1/3 - mutual follows
2/3 - one-way follows

29. Guiding users up the ladder of engagement

31. Home Profile Find People Settings Help Sign out
stoptest7
What’s happening? 140 0 tweets
0 0 0
following followers listed
Tweet Twit·Vid
n. a simple video sharing
option for your tweets.
Home
Home
@stoptest7
What to do now:
Direct Messages 0
1. Tell us what you’re doing in the box above
Favorites
2. Find some friends and follow what they’re doing
3. Turn on your mobile phone to update your friends on the go Retweets
Search
Lists
Trending: Worldwide
Following
RSS feed
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39. Sending direct emails

40. Even better: get users to send them for you

41. Even better: get users to send them for you

42. Even better: get users to send them for you

44. Always question your assumptions

45. Closing Thoughts
1. Define the problem... and your solution
2. Measure the right things - user accounting
3. Set a good first impression
4. It’s ok to remind people you exist, and better if your
core users do it
5. Look to the numbers but don’t live by them