Maven

Tactical, actionable, and concrete advice on finding your power user acquisition channel. This is a must-read for growth leaders and founders from our very own Sandy Diao. Check it out below ??

In a battle of the marketing acronyms, who wins—PLG, CLG, or ABX? The answer is, of course, it depends. It depends on your audience, your stage, your product, your team etc. I’m a hosting a event on Maven on Thursday 3/20 from 12-12:45 PT with 2 of my favorites: Leah Tharin (PLG expert) & mallory contois (community expert). We’ll help you figure out with the right growth lever for your specific B2B startup whether that's ABX (account-based experience), CLG (community-led growth), PLG (product-led growth), some combination, or some other lever all together. RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/emZx4Tcm And if you like what you hear during the event, you can sign up for a full course form Mallory & Leah on Maven here: https://maven.com/x/kramer

Growth Hacking died a few years ago. Now, a Growth Renaissance is taking its place. Today's most valuable companies aren't chasing quick wins... they're building systematic engines for sustainable scale. They're leveraging AI to accelerate experimentation, building product features that deeply tap into user psychology, and treating growth as a day-zero priority that spans the entire organization. At Maven, for example, we don’t optimize every detail of our website. Constant optimization makes for inelegant product experiences, where users are bombarded with CTAs and pop-up banners and share on social modals. Instead, our growth systems are deeply embedded into the product: we created “Lightning Lessons” which are a key growth driver. They act as free previews, bite-sized lessons, and low-commitment lead gen for Maven; we took something that was boring (“webinars”) and made it resonant. Users love them because they are valuable and insightful, and they don’t feel they are being tricked into giving their email address. These types of growth activities require a different style of work. Instead of constant iteration, you need deep insight. Instead of obsessively tracking user behavior, you obsessively interview users to understand their motivations. Data is still a critical input, but it is balanced with qualitative inputs as well. As this new era dawns, growth still remains critical. It has merely shifted and moved. And Maven is pulling together some of the newest, freshest growth leaders to teach you how to modernize your skills for the Growth Renaissance: ? Growth Playbooks for the AI Era with Andrew Chen ? Build Your Quality First PLG Approach with Kate Syuma ? Scale Your Consumer Subscription App with Phil Carter ? Choose the Right Growth Lever with Emily Kramer ? How Top SaaS Optimize Pricing with Rob Litterst ? Community-led Growth 101 with mallory contois ? Build Executive P&L Models with Elena Luneva ? Build a Simple GTM Strategy with Maja Voje Check out the full lineup (it’s free): bit.ly/growth-renaissance

People often ask me what PM and career courses I recommend. Here are 10 of my favorite: I partnered with Maven and curated the best so you don’t have to wade through thousands of options: https://maven.com/x/aakash The future of PM is AI-powered. These courses will get you there. And here’s the best part: these aren’t pre-recorded courses. They’re live, cohort-based courses where you’ll learn everything in an interactive environment. These instructors are rock-stars: Ron Kohavi (Ex-Microsoft) → Master A/B testing Marily Nika, Ph.D Nika (Google) → AI PM certification Miqdad Jaffer (OpenAI) → Build AI-powered products Kate Syuma (Growthmates) → Build your PLG roadmap Leah Tharin (Productea) → Master your B2B PLG motion Colin Matthews (TechForProduct) → Build AI prototypes Tal Raviv (Ex-Patreon) → Build your personal PM AI co-pilot Satish Mummareddy (Ex-Meta) → Influence without authority Ben Erez (Ex-meta) → Use AI practice copilots to master interviews Sara Davison (Maivenly) & Tyler Fisk (AI Build Lab) → Scale with AI I've featured many in my newsletter & podcast for their expertise. This is your chance to learn from them in-person. Use my code AAKASHxMAVEN to get $100 off. And be sure to ask your employer if they’ll sponsor it. So many people underuse those benefits.

I get asked all the time when I’m teaching my next course on Maven. I had an amazing run of 5 cohorts and still keep in touch with many marketing leader “alumni”. You’ll hear alumni on my podcast, read examples of their work in my newsletter, and see us chatting on LinkedIn daily. It’s been fun to watch their careers take off over the past couple of years. But, the short answer is I’m not sure when I’ll get my act together to teach again. So in the meantime I’ve partnered with Maven in a new way. I’ve curated a list of courses from GTM leaders I trust and think my subscribers will love learning from. These leaders are true experts in their field from PLG to CLG and pricing–and the ones I follow and chat with to stay up to date. ?? Use code KRAMERxMAVEN to get $100 off any of my selected courses. Here’s the list: Leah Tharin, Product-led Growth in B2B:? Leah hosts ProductTea, my favorite podcast to be a guest on! She’s not only extremely knowledgeable on PLG, but she’s incredibly authentic and funny (my favorite qualities in humans). mallory contois, Community-Led Growth: Mallory leads Community at Mercury and started Old Girls Club (where I’m a member). Emma Stratton, B2B Tech Messaging: Emma's Punchy is regarded as the best positioning & messaging agency around, don’t miss the opportunity to learn from Emma. Kira Klaas teaching Brand for Growth-Stage Leaders: Kira has deep experience leading brand teams at startups like Later, Notion, Brex, and Gusto. Her substack (and course) are a can’t miss. Ron Kohavi, Innovation with AB Testing: Growth leaders who love data—this is for you. Kate Syuma: User-Centric Product-Led Growth: Build Your Roadmap from Quick Wins to Big Bets: You know how much I love thinking in big bets. Great course for product growth leaders. Rob Litterst & Wilson Sadowski, ?Pricing for SaaS: Your Competitive Advantage”: Pricing is an overlooked growth lever marketers should spend more time learning about—and there are no 2 people better to learn from. ?? Find the full list and apply here: https://maven.com/x/kramer and don’t forget to use code KRAMERxMAVEN. Any other courses you recommend?

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

Most startup management advice tells you how to control chaos. Here's the truth: You can't control it. And trying to will often burn you out. I burned out when Facebook was going to hypergrowth. Mark offered me amazing roles, but I was too exhausted to even consider them. The only way to recover was to leave. I'm teaching a free, 30-minute Lightning Lesson on Maven on March 4 about what I wish I knew when I first became a manager inside a fast growing company. Hint: This isn't about working harder. It's about staying sane while building something great. We’ll get into: - What to do when your team is operating at 50% capacity - When to fire people (yes, really - it's good for everyone) - How to grow and retain your highest performers Just honest talk about surviving the marathon of startup leadership. Join me at 10am PT on March 4!?Link in comments (You can also sign up and they'll send you the recording even if you can't make the time)

?? Story time! We did some strange things with our Superhuman white-glove onboardings… During the call, Onboarding Specialists would capture immensely detailed notes. Then send them to an internal mailing list. This included a prediction on whether the customer would be retained or not. On 19th February, 2020, Kian Kolahdouzan onboarded Gagan Biyani, previously cofounder of Udemy and Sprig. A big deal onboarding! Better not screw it up… Kian's retention prediction for Gagan: (drum roll please) "Unsure (He had to leave 20 minutes early to get to his next meeting)" … damn ?? He left 20 minutes early…?from a 30 minute onboarding ?? ?? What would happen? Would he retain? Did he hate Kian or something!? Fast-forward almost exactly five years — to 6th February, 2025. Guess who appears in my inbox? None other than Gagan Biyani! He may have turned off "Sent via Superhuman". But oh boy, I see it in the message headers, unmistakeable: "Message-ID: <m6udr0rt.2ad6442f-09af-4e2d-91ee-27a8a2c2a706@we.are.superhuman.com>" …Got 'em ?? ?? (nice work Kian) Gagan's ask? To join him on an upcoming Maven fireside chat for founders, growth, & product leaders. Excited to finally sit down with Gagan next Tuesday, Feb 25th. We'll cover… - Pinpointing and solving your growth constraints - Finding and using your unfair advantages - Building and leading a world-class growth pod And maybe I'll roast him. Maybe he'll roast me. Who knows! We have 600 registrants already ?? Join us! Register here:?https://bit.ly/4b3Llx6 (it's free) See you there… #growth #product

The hardest job in tech is working on growth. The landscape shifts all the time. Your boss doesn’t want you to spend money anymore, so paid is out. And AI has thrown everything into a tizzy. I was part of the growth hacking movement in 2010-2017. I even started the “Growth Hackers Conference” and had all the legends come speak at it. Back then, money flowed like water and growth professionals had dozens of channels to choose from. Today, things are different. There is no clear “go-to” channel where you can mine for users. Social is mostly closed down, and is more about content quality than conversion. When you do get a win, it is hard to sustain. SEO feels like it's on its way out. And paid acquisition is more expensive than ever. At the same time, growth is essential. It is the lifeblood of business and is particularly important in tech companies. While you can certainly grow by improving your product, distribution is still king. Claude or Perplexity might be better than ChatGPT, but ChatGPT has the distribution advantage and is the clear front-runner because of it. I decided to go on a bit of a listening tour. I’ve been meeting with some of the best growth leaders to pick their brain on what the hell is going on with growth. And we got them to teach it to y’all for free. Introducing Growth Insiders, a series of workshops on succeeding in growth today and into the future: ? Become a Full Stack Growth Leader with Kyle Poyar ? Growth Playbooks for the AI Era with Andrew Chen ? Define Your AI Pricing Strategy with Naomi Pilosof Ionita ? Build Your Growth Engine from the Ground Up with Gaurav Vohra ? Find Your Top Performing User Acquisition Channel with Sandy Diao ? How Shopify Makes Long-Term Growth Decisions with Archie Abrams Check it out on Maven (it’s free): bit.ly/growth-insiders?

I don't know if I would've predicted this, but I'm seeing the rise of the GTM *generalist* at the expense of the *specialist*. 2025's breakout growth leaders will be "full-stack" by default. It's not so much about a specific title. It's about the right skillset. They'll understand how to architect revenue systems that connect every touchpoint. They can spot growth opportunities and turn them into repeatable revenue engines. And they're comfortable moving across channels & tactics in search of what works today. We're talking about folks who can: - Build no-code GTM automation flows - Design product-led conversion experiments - Deploy AI agents for personalized outreach - Build dashboards that actually drive decisions - Launch and validate new channels in days, not months On Feb 25, I’m hosting a live conversation with three of the most versatile growth leaders in the business, Bruno Estrella (Clay), Sandy Diao (Limitless), and Rob Litterst (HubSpot). Join us on Maven to learn how the full-stack growth leader role is evolving and how to position yourself for what's next. See you there (it’s free): https://bit.ly/3Ez2kLo PS - We've got a special announcement dropping in the session. You don't want to miss it ?? #growth #startup #ai