Matt Lerner's overview of 500 Startups Distro Dojo Growth Hacking process for Oxford Inspires 2016 conference @Said Business School.

1. Is Growth Hacking Bullshit?
Matt Lerner
Oxford Inspires
6 March, 2016
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2. / About Matt Lerner
• Marketing for 3 startups, one exit
• 11 years Marketing & GM at PayPal
• Built & ran 5 Growth teams
• Mentored ~ 40 startups on the side
• Now runs 500 Startups London
Digital Marketer Turned VC

3. /
Since July 20101,500+ investments3
About 500 Startups
$240MM in assets2
The various geographies highlighted in the map result from investments we have made across all 500 Startups funds.
1. The Silicon Valley Tech Venture Capital Almanac, Fall 2013 and TechCrunch Article May 5, 2015, “500 Startups Aims To Be The Largest VC Shop In The World” http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/05/500-startups-aims-to-be-the-la
rgest-vc-shop-in-the-world/
2. Approximated as of 9/1/2015 and includes the following 500 Startups funds: (a) 500 Startups, L.P. and 500 Startups-A, L.P. (together, “Fund I”), (b) 500 Startups II, L.P. and 500 Startups II-A, L.P. (together, “Fund II”), (c) 500 Star
tups III, L.P. and 500 Startups III-A, L.P. (together, “Fund III”), (d) 500 Startups IV, L.P. and 500 Startups IV-A, L.P. (together, “Fund IV”), (e) 500 Startups Annex Fund, L.P. (“Annex”), (f) 500 Luchadores, L.P. (“Luchadores”), (g) 500 D
urians, L.P. (“Durians”), (h) 500 Mobile Collective, L.P. (“Mobile Collective”), (i) 500 Kimchi, L.P. (“Kimchi”), (j) 500 TukTuks, L.P. (“TukTuks”), (k) 500 Startups JP, L.P. ("Japan") and (l) 500 Startups Istanbul, L.P. ("Istanbul")."

4. About The Distro Dojo?
Distro = (n.) Distribution; the action or process of supplying
products or services to potential customers.
Dojo = (n.) from the Japanese dō ‘way pursuit’ + jō ‘a place’; a
school for training in various martial arts.
Who: Companies with a live/GA product and happy/paying
customers (typically post-seed), ready to focus on growth!
What: Investment from 500 Startups, $150K - $250K, plus an
intensive 12-week program covering all aspects of growth
When: Next batch starts May 18. Applications by referral only.
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5. Is Growth Hacking Bullshit?

6. Is Growth Hacking Bullshit?
! Hotmail
! PayPal
! Twitter
! YouTube
! Dropbox
! Facebook
! LinkedIn
! Air BnB
! Zynga
! LivingSocial
! Instagram
! MoveOn.org
! Pinterest
! MySpace
! Hubspot
! Mint.com
! Groupon
! Whatsapp
! Snapchat
! Meerkat
! Quora

7. Defining Growth

8. “A hacker is one who enjoys
the intellectual challenge of
creatively overcoming and
circumventing limitations of
systems.”
Verna Gehring
The Internet in Public Life
Defining Hacking

9. “A growth hacker is a person whose true north
is growth… to take responsibility for growth and
an entrepreneurial drive....
They must have the creativity to figure out
unique ways of driving growth in addition to
testing/evolving the techniques proven by
other companies.”
Sean Ellis

10. If you Only Remember One Thing…
! A collection of tactics
! Focused on getting clicks, views or signups
Growth Hacking is a mindset and a
process that run deep into the funnel.
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11. Our Process
1. Clarify your goals
2. Choose your key metric
3. Understand your customer &
product market fit
4. Understand the system
5. Generate Ideas
6. Test & Iterate
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12. Conclusions
! This is definitely a thing. But…
! Many of the best are not marketers
! Includes the whole (pirate) funnel
! Much of the action is in the middle of the funnel
! Not tactics, it’s a process and a mindset
– Art and a science, causation & correlation
– Understand customers & system, look for angles & leverage
! Don’t just hustle, work smart
Nov 16, 2015
Weeks 3 - 12
MeasureExecutePrioritiseBrainstorm
Distro Dojo Process & Schedule/
Goals & KPIs
1 - 3 goals & KPIs at
the funnel-stage
level, e.g. boost
traffic, or
conversion, or app
downloads, or
conversion to paid
First just your team
Then with all Sensei
Then with specialist
experts in your
tactics.
Rank by highest
leverage (effort vs.
impact)
• Weekly sprints
• 1:1 with specialist
expert mentors
• UX Audit
• SEO Audit
• Personas &
Messaging
• Analytics Audit
• Build (or fix) KPI
dashboard
• Weekly reviews
Weeks 1 & 2

13. The Mindset
1. Humble: 2/3 of tests fail. Failure " learning! Embrace failure!
2. Tenacious: Persistent with a bias towards action – do’ers.
3. It’s a science: Systematic thinker, curious, keen observers, understands
experimental design, causation and correlation.
4. It’s an art: Obsessed with simplifying the customer journey.
5. Systems thinker: Use existing momentum, find the lever points. Always looking for
the 80/20’s or better.
6. Intensely Curious: Ask a lot of questions, ask great questions.
7. Optimistic: Comfortable with ambiguity, hopeful but impatient.
8. Diverse: Variety of perspectives, backgrounds.
9. Relationship Builders: Can help involve the whole org.
10. Driven: People who know what success looks like and won’t settle.

14. Conclusions
! This is definitely a thing. But…
! Many of the best are not marketers
! Includes the whole (pirate) funnel
! Not tactics, it’s a process and a mindset
– Art and a science, causation & correlation
– Understand customers & system, look for angles & leverage
! Don’t just hustle, work smart
! Test & measure, test & measure, test & measure
Download This Deck @MattHLerner

15. Any Questions?
Download This Deck @MattHLerner
lerner@500.co!