How to Learn Strategy (When Everything is Strategic)

I happened to be on Quora the other night and noticed a poster asking the question: "What's the best way to learn strategy?" I thought it was a cool (and somewhat daunting) question, so I chimed in and wanted to share my answer here. It also occurred to me that learning strategic thinking has two … Continue reading How to Learn Strategy (When Everything is Strategic)

Strategy: How to Develop, Structure and Shape a Winning System

Hi, welcome, and yes, I realize the title of this is a bit heavy-handed. While it would be inaccurate and egotistical of me to claim this is any sort of authoritative piece on strategy (if such a thing can even be written), my goal here is to pull together a comprehensive, actionable view of strategy, … Continue reading Strategy: How to Develop, Structure and Shape a Winning System

The Simple $100 Million Dollar Product Strategy

Product strategy is usually hard. Product-market fit is elusive, organizations are complicated, competitors move fast, and culture and technology evolve constantly, forcing strategists to continuously test and refine their work to stay ahead and eke out advantages.   But every once and a while though, a startup comes along that nails product strategy with beautiful, pristine simplicity. … Continue reading The Simple $100 Million Dollar Product Strategy

How to Build a Growth Team: Lessons From the Front Lines

I joined a growth roundtable at First Round Capital last week, which included trategyome really sharp thinkers like Gina Gotthilf from Duolingo and Ashley Berman from Birchbox. It ended up being an enjoyable and illuminating conversation about growth strategy, acquisition and retention tactics, and org design. While it was a closed session -- so I can't share … Continue reading How to Build a Growth Team: Lessons From the Front Lines

How to Make a Facebook Messenger Bot with Zero Code: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

As a so-so programmer, I recently looked up how to create a Facebook messenger bot that could automatically share new posts from my blog (as an alternative to someone subscribing via email or RSS). Normally, if I can find a suitable Github library or clear enough tutorial, and the app isn't too complicated, I can … Continue reading How to Make a Facebook Messenger Bot with Zero Code: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

Managing A Startup’s Most Valuable Resource: Time

[The following is an excerpt from my essay "Time Management for Startups: Quantify, Prioritize, and Automate" that originally appeared on Sixteen Ventures. To read the article in its entirety, including Lincoln Murphy's forward, conclusion and other productivity recommendations, please go here.] Whenever I write a guest post or article, I start by brainstorming how I … Continue reading Managing A Startup’s Most Valuable Resource: Time

Why It’s Impossible to Hire Good Growth Engineers

I’ve spent a nontrivial part of my last two months at Percolate focused on hiring growth engineers — software developers who are passionate about agile, creative app development, customer acquisition and scalable experimentation. This clearly represents a valuable skill-set, as talented individuals in this role can have a major impact on the overall trajectory of … Continue reading Why It’s Impossible to Hire Good Growth Engineers

The Five Pillars of Growth Hacking

Growth hacking is currently going through a turbulent adolescence. After being thrust into the public spotlight by opportunistic media pundits and loosely-correlated startup success stories, the innovation community has struggled to define and defend growth hacking as a practice or designation with substance.  To borrow from a thoughtful, recent article by Lincoln Murphy, the growth hacker … Continue reading The Five Pillars of Growth Hacking

How I Got My Startup Profitable in 6 Weeks

My previous startup had a sales cycle problem. We sold an enterprise product targeted at agencies and big consumer brands, and — while we could clearly articulate benefits — we could only point to an opaque, fuzzy ROI for the buyer during the sales process. As a result, our sales cycle could stretch for months (including *delightful* hurdles like vendor … Continue reading How I Got My Startup Profitable in 6 Weeks