buffer's top 10 learnings growing to $10 million arr
TRANSCRIPT
@leowid
Top 10 Learnings Growing to $10 Million ARR
by @leowid Co-founder and COO at Buffer
@leowid
1. Experiment with a weekly mastermind with your
co-founder in this format
@leowid
How masterminds work
• We take around 1-2 hours, preferably when it feels a bit less busy.
• We talk for 10 minutes each about our achievements; like “I shipped this feature” or “I hit the gym 3 times this week”
• Then we spend 40 minutes each on challenges. We try to really dive in here and not stay on the surface.
• We then add a section at the end where we share feedback for each other.
@leowid
2. Avoid being distracted by data too early on
@leowid
Most early stage startups won't have enough customers to rely on quantitative data. You need to be acquiring
hundreds of customers every month (preferably thousands) to have enough data to support A/B tests, etc.
Hiten Shah Co-founder of CrazyEgg, KISSmetrics and QuickSprout
@leowid
3. Try asking these 5 questions to learn better
from customers
@leowid
“You need to learn how customers behave and what
they need. In other words, focus on their problem, not their suggested solution.”
Cindy Alvarez
@leowid
Questions to askTell me about how you do _________ today….
Do you use any [tools/products/apps/tricks] to help you get ________ done?
If you could wave a magic wand and be able to do anything that you can’t do today, what would it be? Don’t worry about whether it’s possible, just anything.
Last time you did ___________, what were you doing right before you got started? Once you finished, what did you do afterward?
Is there anything else about _________ that I should have asked?
Link to full template bit.ly/buffercustdev
@leowid
4. Keep your data in house to be more flexible
Buffer’s journey with data
2010-11: In-house data-tools built by Joel
2012: Experimentation with various 3rd party event-tracking tools (KISSmetrics, Mixpanel)
2013-14: Moving back to build all data-tools in-house
2015-2016: Transitioning to using Looker
@leowid
5. Pick one channel to double down on instead of
many (Bullseye exercise)
@leowid
How to find your 1 channel that works
• Outer ring: What’s possible - brainstorm all 19 traction channels there are
• Middle ring: What’s probable - Promote 3-4 most promising ideas and run tests
• Inner ring: What’s working - Focus solely on the 1 channel that’s working
—> Marketing flywheel
http://tractionbook.com/ by Gabriel Weinberg, founder of DuckDuckGo
@leowid
6. Seek conflicting advice from at least 2 mentors on
your biggest decisions
@leowid
7. Experiment with changing your prices often as you add
value
@leowid
Doubling Buffer’s pricing
Free $0/mo
Standard $5/mo
Max $20/mo
Awesome Plan $10/mo
Business $50-250/mo
Enterprise Starts at $300/mo
@leowid
8. Use the lean startup methodology for every feature
you build, especially post launch
@leowid
@leowid
• Hypothesis for your feature
• A customer development phase
• An (InVision), clickable proto-type to get feedback
• A roll-out of a working version that embarrasses you slightly
Create a process around it that includes
@leowid
9. When you get an offer to sell, list the experiences of personal
growth you might miss
@leowid
• How to serve tens of thousands of customers
• How to let someone go
• How to hire key positions and train leaders
• How to acquire another company
• How to raise bigger funding rounds
• How to recover from a hack
What we’d miss out on learning
@leowid
“Stop thinking about making a million dollars and start thinking about serving a million people”
Dharmesh Shah Founder & CTO at HubSpot
@leowid
10. Start getting better at your strengths and stop
working on your weaknesses
@leowid
Identifying and embracing your strengths allows more forward
momentum and can free you to move much more strongly as a team.
Example: Editor/Operator
• We identified Joel as an Editor: thrives when going deep into one project at a time.
• On the other hand, Leo finds joy in shipping and moving many projects forward at once, as an operator.
@leowid
Thanks!