Growth Levers: A PayPal Veteran's Guide to Startup Success | Matt Lerner on the Crafted. Podcast
Today, we’re sharing a special episode from our friends at the Webby Awards-honored CRAFTED. podcast. In this conversation, Dan Blumberg interviews growth expert, SYSTM founder, and former PayPal leader Matt Lerner about his book 'Growth Levers,' offering actionable strategies for startups to identify the 10% of efforts that drive 90% of growth. They discuss common startup pitfalls, the mindset shift to customer-centric thinking, JTBD-style interviewing, and the importance of rapid experimentation. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/0959781...
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Check out Dan Blumberg's CRAFTED. where he interviews founders of high growth startups, including from Lattice, Gusto, Moov, Monte Carlo, Customer.io and our own Sasha Orloff!
crafted.fm
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3xtU2V1...
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LINKS:
Matt Lerner's company: https://www.systm.co/
CRAFTED. podcast: https://crafted.fm
Growth Levers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/173842622X
/ dblums
/ matthewlerner
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LinkedIn:
Matt Lerner / matthewlerner
Dan Blumberg / dblums
Sasha Orloff / sashaorloff
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TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Intro and guest introduction: Dan Blumberg welcomes Matt Lerner
(00:10) Matt's background: Growth leader, ex-PayPal, and author of Growth Levers
(00:30) The 90/10 rule: Finding the 10% that drives growth
(01:00) Why startups need to fund experimentation
(01:40) The mindset shift from product to customer needs
(02:10) Jobs-to-be-done interviews and overcoming initial skepticism
(03:00) Common startup pitfalls: Overthinkers, underthinkers, and delegators
(06:20) Why rapid experimentation is essential for startups
(08:50) The importance of pace in learning and testing hypotheses
(10:00) Examples of companies that excel at experimentation
(13:10) The concept of "locksmith moments" in customer journeys
(16:00) Practical steps for conducting jobs-to-be-done interviews
(19:20) The six key insights from customer interviews
(22:30) Translating interviews into actionable growth strategies
(24:00) What are growth sprints and how to execute them
(26:10) Real-world examples of quick, impactful growth experiments
(28:30) Retention as an activation issue: The importance of the first experience
(30:10) Examples of retention-focused insights from Facebook and Netflix
(31:00) Lessons from Matt’s time at an oil refinery: Finding the bottleneck
(33:40) Writing a book as a non-agile process: Why Matt chose to write Growth Levers
(35:00) Closing thoughts: Matt’s passion for sharing his insights with startups