Growth Unhinged

My goal with Growth Unhinged has been to explore the hidden playbooks behind the fastest-growing startups. But a newsletter only scratches the surface... Y’all have asked for ways to get deeper insider knowledge with immediate impact. I’ve finally found how to do that. Introducing: Kyle Poyar x Maven ?? These are curated courses taught by my go-to experts. I've handpicked folks who've actively built & scaled breakout companies like HubSpot, Miro, Notion, Mercury & Descript to teach live, interactive (and slightly unhinged) courses on growth. The ???? lineup: - Launch & scale AI products profitably with Maja Voje - Pricing for SaaS: your competitive advantage with Rob Litterst & Wilson Sadowski - How to build your user acquisition engine with Sandy Diao - Community-led growth with mallory contois - Product-led growth (PLG) in B2B with Leah Tharin - GTM strategy for product leaders with Elena Luneva - A/B testing to accelerate innovation with Ron Kohavi - Brand for growth stage leaders with Kira Klaas - User-centric PLG with Kate Syuma Why I’m so excited about this: the scope of growth roles is changing in real-time. Expectations are higher than ever, acquisition channels have flipped, and growth roles are shifting from specialist to “full-stack”. Now’s the time to build durable skills that take your career to the next level. ?? Use code KYLExMAVEN for $100 off any course in this collection at https://lnkd.in/eFy363tx #growth #plg #startups #ai

AI products like Cursor, Bolt and Replit are shattering growth records not because they're "AI agents". Or because they've got impossibly small teams (although that's cool to see ??). It's because they've mastered the user experience around AI, somehow balancing pro-like capabilities with B2C-like UI. This is product-led growth on steroids. Yaakov Carno tried the most viral AI products he could get his hands on. Here are the surprising patterns he found: (Don't miss the full breakdown in today's bonus Growth Unhinged: https://lnkd.in/ehk3rUTa) 1. Their AI doesn't feel like a black box. Pro-tips from the best: - Show step-by-step visibility into AI processes - Let users ask, “Why did AI do that?” - Use visual explanations to build trust. 2. Users don’t need better AI—they need better ways to talk to it. Pro-tips from the best: - Offer pre-built prompt templates to guide users. - Provide multiple interaction modes (guided, manual, hybrid). - Let AI suggest better inputs ("enhance prompt") before executing an action. 3. The AI works with you, not just for you. Pro-tips from the best: - Design AI tools to be interactive, not just output-driven. - Provide different modes for different types of collaboration. - Let users refine and iterate on AI results easily. 4. Let users see (& edit) the outcome before it's irreversible. Pro-tips from the best: - Allow users to test AI features before full commitment (many let you use it without even creating an account). - Provide preview or undo options before executing AI changes. - Offer exploratory onboarding experiences to build trust. 5. The AI weaves into your workflow, it doesn't interrupt it. Pro-tips from the best: - Provide simple accept/reject mechanisms for AI suggestions. - Design seamless transitions between AI interactions. - Prioritize the user’s context to avoid workflow disruptions. -- The TL;DR: Having "AI" isn’t the differentiator anymore—great UX is. Pardon the Sunday interruption & hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did ?? #ai #genai #ux #plg

The good, the bad & the ugly of 339 SaaS pricing & packaging changes ?? (Full disclosure: The brilliant Rob Litterst & John Kotowski of PricingSaaS did the tracking.) 1?? Price increases are still happening -- despite the shock of DeepSeek & the promise of lower AI costs. Out of 126 pricing updates, 89 were price increases (71%). 37 were price decreases. When folks raised prices, it was usually +10-30%. (There were outliers -- the most notable was Docker, which raised prices +67-80%.) One of the few big price *decreases* was Zapier, which dropped the price of its Professional plan from $49/mo to $19/mo. 2?? Did everyone read the same behavioral econ article about the "Compromise Effect"?! A big trend was increasing the price of the entry-level or individual user plan -- but leaving the expensive plan as-is. This stealthily nudges folks to spend more by trading up. See: Pipedrive, Jira, Lucid, Anydesk. 3?? Get ready for paywalls in 2025 -- especially for AI products. We’ve seen usage-based paywalls before (think: Zoom’s classic 40 minute paywall), but we’re about to see far more of them with AI products. A few examples: ChatGPT, Confluence, Asana, Perplexity, Claude, Grammarly. -- This was an awesome dataset with a ton of before/after examples. See it for yourself in today's Growth Unhinged newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ea4uqv_Q Can’t wait to hear what you think & what pricing changes you noticed this year. #saas #ai #monetization #pricing

One of my favorite random ways to use ChatGPT for GTM: finding B2B emails not covered by third party providers (ex: Apollo, Clay). This happens all ?? the ?? time — especially when your target accounts are SMBs and/or in more traditional industries. Or when you’re trying to reach a new hire who hasn’t been “found” yet (ex: champion changes jobs). How to do it ?? Prompt 1: “Find the most likely email pattern for [insert company name]” Prompt 2: “Based on this email pattern, what’s the most likely email for [insert first and last name]?” — It’s not foolproof, but it can be surprisingly effective. PS: Brendan Short & I are teaming up to cover our favorite automated GTM plays (and how to run them). It drops in Growth Unhinged tomorrow at 6:50am ET. Get it in your inbox: https://lnkd.in/exTbjKaM #ai #chatgpt #sales

I just met with three dozen early-stage startup founders. When I asked how many nailed their pricing & packaging, ZERO hands went up. Here’s the advice I gave: 1. You’re (probably) too cheap. B2B buyers aren’t like consumers. They care about the Rs: risk, reputation, and ROI. In the early stages your value increases exponentially. You can share in that. My data shows the average software startup increases ACV by 60% as they go from seed stage to expansion. And another 40% on the path from expansion to scale-up. 2. You picked the wrong value metric. Seats are no longer the default value metric. Especially if your value prop relates to AI, automation or APIs — customers don’t necessarily get more value by having more humans log in. And it’s (extremely) hard to change this as you start to scale. Food for thought: name more than one mature software company that successfully pivoted from seat-based to usage-based or outcome-based pricing with their core product. I’ll wait. A great value metric is correlated with value. It’s flexible for customers to start small. It grows over time. It can be predicted. And it’s feasible to track & bill against. 3. You make it hard for customers to buy. There could be a PLG story here with a freemium or free trial (or, even better, reverse trial) helping with acquisition. But it’s much more than that. Consider procurement thresholds in an account, paid PoCs/PoVs or pay-as-you-go as a way to lower the barrier to the initial purchase. 4. Your upsell path is broken. The best software companies have at least two levers for expanding customers. The most obvious: selling more features, selling more usage. I’ve seen usage-based expansion improve NDR by 10pp or higher. 5. You treat pricing as one-and-done. Pricing needs to evolve as the company evolves. Collect the data. Assign an owner. Revisit it regularly (usually quarterly in the early stages). Bonus: when you do make a pricing change, document *exactly* what happened to win rates, deal sizes, sales cycles, retention, etc. Almost nobody does — but you’d be surprised how much you learn. You built a great product. Now it’s time to get paid. #ai #monetization #pricing

2025 Board meeting season is quickly approaching (sorry to mention it!). What NOT to do: 1. Add new slides at 2am. 2. Treat the Board like the CEO's boss. 3. Over-pack the room with VCs. 4. Let the meeting drag on for >3.5 hours. 5. Send the pre-read more than 72 hours in advance. 6. Skip over the actual strategic topics facing the business. 7. Exclude people just because they aren't Execs. 8. Mistake the deck with the actual show. 9. Leave out comparisons (vs. last period, vs. plan). 10. Let it become a gladiator ring where egos collide. Look, Board meetings can be super intimidating. Nothing else brings the Imposter Syndrome out of its cage like a difficult Board. But getting good at Board meetings is a *skill* that we can all learn. And CFO CJ Gustafson (who writes the excellent Mostly Metrics newsletter) is precociously good at it. I invited CJ to join Growth Unhinged today to share all of his wisdom. This is a piece you should bookmark: https://lnkd.in/emwhprVN Hope you find it useful ?? (or that you at least enjoy the Dad jokes) #board #finance #startup

Why we think we have a marketing problem: - Not enough leads - Not enough MQLs - Not enough pipeline - Not enough marketing activity (blogs, social posts, etc.) - Not enough marketing attribution on that activity Why we *actually* have a marketing problem: 1. We don’t know our exact target customer 2. We don't know where we stand with that customer in *their* journey 3. We don’t have a compelling message to influence that customer 4. We don’t have an efficient channel that we can scale 5. We don’t have the resources/expertise to scale the channels that are working 6. We haven’t properly tested new channels that could scale in the future 7. We don’t have alignment between marketing and sales on ^^ It doesn't matter which leads are "marketing-generated" or "marketing-qualified" (or which are "product-qualified" for that matter). The best marketers change the trajectory of the business by influencing and helping drive all revenue within our ICP. It starts with building a unified GTM view -- with unified GTM metrics. Or, we can just rebuild the website again ?? — ?? For more marketing & growth insights, don’t miss Growth Unhinged — my free weekly newsletter: https://lnkd.in/exTbjKaM #marketing #icp #startup

New data: Customers don't care about your "AI-powered" feature. This comes from a survey of 767 software users by Kristen Berman and the team at Irrational Labs. You'll want to dive into the full results in today's Growth Unhinged: https://lnkd.in/e7eCUv5b What the study found: 1. Rather than enhancing perceptions, the term “generative AI” significantly?lowered expectations?of a product’s potential impact. This might reflect skepticism from tools that overpromise and under-deliver, such as unreliable chatbots or lackluster generative content. 2. Labeling a product as AI-driven did little to justify a higher price. Customers were unwilling to pay more unless the tool demonstrated clear, compelling benefits. (Superhuman was the only exception.) 3. The impact on trust was largely neutral. For most brands, explicitly mentioning AI didn’t increase customer confidence in the tool’s reliability. What to do instead: - Lead with benefits, not AI-jargon. Canva says its "Magic Design" feature helps users effortlessly make beautiful designs -- not that it's a tool for "AI-powered productivity". - Make claims tangible. GitHub Copilot highlights that "developers are coding up to 55% faster." - Take a page from behavioral science with the Endowment Effect (think: reverse trial of AI features). - When you?must?use “AI,” be thoughtful. Pair it with a clear use case or branding that connects to user needs. Can't wait to hear what y'all think about this data. #ai #messaging #startup

HubSpot’s reported SEO decline is a wake-up call. But not in the way you think. 1. If you don’t own the audience, you’re constantly subject to the whims of the algorithm. This week it’s Google. Last week it was TikTok. Before that it was Twitter. Maybe next week it’ll be LinkedIn. 2. Owned, first-party audiences (or, even better, communities) are worth more & more. HubSpot saw this coming years ago & bought their own media assets (see: The Hustle). They’re not alone. - Paddle acquired ProfitWell. - Zapier acquired Makerpad. - Semrush acquired Backlinko. - Pendo acquired Mind the Product. This could be a newsletter. Or a podcast. Or a Slack community. Or whatever you want it to be as long as it’s your’s. 3. Attracting a first-party audience requires a *very* different skill set compared to SEO. The traffic that HubSpot lost? I suspect it was mostly generic, high volume, low value terms that might have nothing to do with the product. I’ve seen this first hand (TFW “sample daily report to your manager” is your most-visited blog post ??). And it won’t work going forward. How to build an audience: with actually good content that’s original and has a POV. Ideally, it should be so good that folks wonder why it’s free. 4. What you do to attract a first-party audience can be *repurposed* across every channel where your audience hangs out. The magic happens when this becomes a flywheel. You learn what your audience cares about, build a pillar asset around it, distribute it widely across channels. Hey, Google might even notice these ?? assets, too. — ?? For more growth & marketing insights, don’t miss Growth Unhinged — my free weekly newsletter: https://lnkd.in/exTbjKaM #marketing #seo #ai

Folks rarely talk about the 'awkward teenage years' of building a startup. But going from (mostly) founder-led selling to repeatable GTM is *exceptionally* tough. Thankfully, maximus greenwald from Warmly, was willing to share his exact journey. This includes the good (3x YoY growth ??), the bad (the bloat of growing a GTM team) & the ugly (paying $101 per demo only to get *terrible* meetings). Here's the TL;DR. Don't miss the fully story in today's Growth Unhinged: https://lnkd.in/e_JGcdwy -- Q1 24: 100 → 130 customers ???Experiment:?Automate top channels via full funnel orchestration ???GTM strategy:?Centralize Linkedin (social posting + outbound DMs), email sequences & live calling/chatting prospects on the website ??Questions:?(1) Should we triple down on one channel? (no), (2) can we get AEs to $60k quota? (not yet), (3) can we get the same conversion rates for automated warm outbound? (yes) ????Tools:? Outreach (engagement),?Seamless.AI?(contacts),? Sendspark?(video),?Salesflow.io?(LinkedIn sequences),?Warmly,?(sales orchestration) ???Starting team:?Sales leader, 3 AEs, 4 SDRs Q2 24: 130 → 170 customers ???Experiment:?Parallel cold calling while warm calling ???GTM strategy:?Have SDRs blitz call cold prospects in Orum while simultaneously warm calling until someone responds ??Questions:?(1) How many SDRs can we hire before efficiency slows? (7) (2) is Eastern Europe the right place for our SDR hub? (yes) (3) does hiring in-house referrals work? (yes) (4) can we scale Linkedin social selling to our reps? (not yet) ????Tools:?Default?(deal router),?Orum ?? (dialer),?Spekit ???(documentation) Q3 24: 170 → 210 customers ???Experiment:?Segment outbound & inbound, SMB & MM ???GTM strategy:?Specialize sales reps to focus on a method of closing (inbound/freemium for new role Inbound Sales Rep (ISR), self-source/SDR for AEs) while properly routing deals ??Questions:?(1) Will creating an inbound-only jr closing role create efficiency? (yes) (2) will segmenting AEs in SMB or MM create efficiency? (not really) (3) will hiring a sales mgmt layer speed up training & increase SDR efficiency? (yes) ????Tools:?Cacheflow?(quotes),?Capchase?(upfront payments for monthly billing),?Qflow?(rep activity summaries) Q4 24: 210 → 250 customers ???Experiment:?Partnerships & paid marketing ???GTM strategy:?Dedicate a full time rep to partners & give generous affiliate fees for referral deals ??Questions:?(1) Does adding accelerators & decelerators for rep commission affect metrics? (likely) (2) will adding a company-wide ‘big deal review’ lead to higher closed-won for bigger deals? (unclear) (3) can we get Business Tier ACVs to $18k? (likely) ????Tools:?Crossbeam?(partner CRM),?FirstPromoter?(affiliate tracking),?Loyee.ai?(ICP builder),?QuotaPath?(commissions),?Postal.io?(gifting) ???Ending team:?Sales leader, 3 AEs, 10 SDRs, 2 ISRs, SDR mgr, RevOps mgr, partnerships Hope you enjoy the post ?? #gtm #startup #ai