BUILD YOUR STARTUP GROWTH MACHINE
Find your big growth levers and pull them. Adopt the framework we've used to help over 200 seed-stage startups grow 10X - 100X in 3 years.
HOSTED BY
Matt Lerner, Nopadon Wongpakdee, and Lisa Kennelly
Startup growth leaders at PayPal, Klarna, Citi Ventures & 500 Startups
GREAT STARTUPS DON`T WASTE TIMEON SMALL STUFF.
COURSE OVERVIEW
If you study history’s great startups, you’ll see a pattern: 90% of their growth came from 10% of the stuff they tried.
Every great startup finds a “big growth lever.” They must. They can’t out-work established brands or out-spend them. They out-think them. But very few people can do this well.
99% of startup growth people can run playbooks, but only 1% can write them.
Generic tactics like paid ads, SEO and referral programs will only get you so far. Big levers are seldom obvious, they come from specific unexpected customer insights, and cut across organizational functions.
In this course, you’ll get a proven process to find your company's big levers:
1. Map your growth model to help everyone prioritize the most impactful work.
2. Find language/market fit to explain your value more clearly to customers.
3. Run experiments and use data to find things that really make an impact.
4. Lead growth sprints to push the pace and quality of learning and execution.
5. Shift everyone's mindset from slow perfectionism to fast and bold.
WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR
01
Impatient Seed & Series A Founders who see their teams wasting time on small projects rather than looking for big ones.
02
Frustrated Growth Leads who struggle to convince their founders that growth is more than just marketing tactics and "turning dials."
03
Growth leaders in larger companies who need to build out a new product or business, but are held back by big company thinking and process.
Lenny Picardo
(B2C, MARKETPLACES)
Silicon Valley veteran, 2 exitsPartner @ 500 Startups VCEarly growth team at PayPalLectures at Stanford Business SchoolCoached over 100 startups
Hannah Parvaz
(B2C, MOBILE)
Silicon Valley veteran, 2 exitsPartner @ 500 Startups VCEarly growth team at PayPalLectures at Stanford Business SchoolCoached over 100 startups
Francesco Cardoletti
(B2B, MARKETPLACES)
Silicon Valley veteran, 2 exitsPartner @ 500 Startups VCEarly growth team at PayPalLectures at Stanford Business SchoolCoached over 100 startups
WHAT YOU`LL GET OUT OF THIS COURSE
Find your North Star and rate-limiting step to focus everyone on the most impactful work.
01
Build a growth model to map your business as a system, identify your North Star Metric, loops and the main constraints that limit your growth. See example growth models for SaaS, Marketplaces and Ecommerce.
Use neuroscience to find language/market fit and explain your value more clearly to customers.
02
After a quick primer on the neuroscience of human perception, you'll learn to uncover your customers' unconscious biases and triggers and find the language that picks the lock. Then you'll learn to turn those insights into high-converting copy and validate it quickly.
Run growth sprints and experiment to find things that really make an impact.
03
See how to run growth sprints, how they're different from product sprints, and how to prioritise ideas (hint: not using I.C.E.)
Learn to design and run weekly growth experiments that go far beyond simple A/B tests. Master the Minimum Viable Testing: Small tests of big ideas.
How great leaders unstick people's thinking
04
Finding the right answer is the easy part; the real challenge is getting the team onboard. You'll get specific tools to help people to drop old ideas that aren't working, abandon perfectionism to move startup-fast, and de-prioritize "sevens" to focus on "tens."
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
MATT LERNER
Matt Lerner started his career as a growth marketer, and general manager in Silicon Valley, and had his first exit in 1998. He joined the early growth team at PayPal in 2004, where he rose to GM of an $800M B2B business. He left PayPal to become Partner with the VC 500 Startups. He founded Startup Core Strengths, where he has helped over 200 early stage startups "find their big growth levers." Matt has been invited to lecture at Stanford University, Berkeley and Imperial College.
Co-Founder, Startup Core Strengths, Ex. PayPal, 500 Startups
NOPADON WONGPAKDEE
A digital marketer with 20+ years of experience, Nopadon has worked with 100+ start-ups as a consultant, Citi Ventures EIR and in-house growth hacker for 500 startups. As co-founder of Startup Core Strengths, Nopadon helps teams apply the Jobs To Be Done methodology to set up the foundations of a growth machine.
Co-Founder, Startup Core Strengths, ex. Citi Ventures, 500 Startups
LISA KENNELLY
2X startup CMO with 15+ years experience. Lisa leads product marketing strategy @ Klarna, previously CMO @ Fishbrain, and Director of Marketing @ Clue. She mentors with First Round Capital, Techstars, Antler, and of course Startup Core Strengths. Little-known fact: After earning a BA from Harvard, she started her career as a sports journalist covering the New York Yankees.
Product Marketing Strategy @ Klarna
COURSE SYLLABUS
Map your startup's growth model
01
Map your growth model to focus everyone on the most impactful work.
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How to find your North Star Metric
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Feedback loops & constraints
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Example growth models (SaaS, Marketplaces, Ecommerce)
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Finding your key drivers
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Your rate-limiting step where you can focus for maximum impact
Finding Language/Market Fit
02
How to explain your value more clearly to customers
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Why this matters more than anything else
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The neuroscience of human perception
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How to find the language that picks the lock
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Jobs-to-be-done and the 4 Forces
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Headlines, landing pages & ads
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How to validate language quickly (even with no traffic)
Growth sprints, experimentation & Minimum Viable Tests
03
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How to run a growth sprint
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Growth sprints vs. product sprints
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How to prioritise experiments (hint: not using I.C.E.)
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Designing & running growth experiments
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Minimum Viable Test: Small tests of big ideas
Leadership & mindset shift
04
How great leaders unstick people's thinking:
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Overcoming sunk-cost bias
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Speed vs. perfectionism
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Deprioritizing "sevens" to focus on "tens."
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When leaders refuse to listen…
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When nothing’s working…
"We worried it’d be generic like other programs and we wouldn’t learn anything new. But the principles were directly applicable to our business. It transformed our failing methods into systems that converted prospects into customers."
DARINA GARLAND
Co-Founder, Ooni Pizza Ovens
They helped us create rigour around growth. We grew 22X in 18 months, and it would've taken us 3x longer to build our growth engine without their help."
JUAN ANDRADE
Co-Founder & CEO, Rebank (YC-W19)
"Theory means nothing unless it's put in the practice. This course pushes execution and holds you and your team accountable so you understand the reasons and learn at a much faster pace."
ALEX DEPLEDGE, MBE
Founder of Resi, prev. founder Hassle.com
SCS made my job so much easier! Now I can get engineering resources and the founder actually listens to me.
IVO KOSTADINOV
VP Growth, Love Electric
8.9 (22 RATINGS)
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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WHO FROM MY TEAM SHOULD ATTEND?Up to 6 people, should include founders, recommend also your head of growth and/or product (if you have them) and analytics. We can work with you on this list during our intake session. (While your extended team cannot participate live, they can access the recordings and course materials).
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ARE THE LESSONS LIVE OR PRE-RECORDED VIDEO? CAN WE ASK QUESTIONS?You'll join a mix of group calls and private coaching sessions with just your team. It's all 100% live so you can question and discuss with the coaches and other participants, and follow-up during private office hours.
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HOW ADVANCED IS THE MATERIAL? OKAY FOR NON-MARKETERS?The material is intellectually demanding, but does not require marketing experience. It is first principles learning, so it will require a lot of thought and operational discipline. But we will present the content in a way that’s accessible to people with zero marketing background and engaging for experienced marketers alike.
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WILL THE SESSIONS BE RECORDED IF I CANNOT ATTEND?Yes, participants will have access to the recordings for one year from the program start date.
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IS THIS LIKE REFORGE?Reforge is an excellent online learning program for experienced/elite level marketers working at late-stage startups and corporates. We’re focusing on earlier stage companies, and welcoming people who have no marketing experience whatsoever. And, rather than individual training, we’re focusing on your whole growth leadership team, since growth really is a team sport!
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ARE YOU TAKING EQUITY?Not at this time.
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WHAT IF WE CHANGE OUR MINDS OR WANT TO PULL OUT?If you change your mind for any reason in the first 3 weeks of the programme, you’ll get an 80% refund, no questions asked. (Though this rarely happens, as we try to make sure everyone’s a good fit via the application & interview process).
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WHAT ARE THE SELECTION CRITERIA?We want this program to have a huge impact on your business. So we’re looking for companies that will have the greatest benefit from our program. That means you need a good functioning product, happy customers, a talented team, enough resources to try stuff, and most of all, a genuine desire to commit to the process, reflect and try new things.
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WHAT ABOUT MY COMPETITORS?Our discussions must be 100% candid. Therefore we cannot allow competing companies under any circumstances. We’ll manage this through the application process.
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DO YOU WORK 1:1 WITH COMPANIES OUTSIDE THIS PROGRAM?That’s how we started out. But we found that the structured program is much more impactful. We can actually spend a lot more time together (lessons + 1:1 coaching sessions), bring in more outside specialists, and the teams also help and encourage each other.
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HOW MANY SLOTS ARE AVAILABLE?Only 30 companies, so that each one can get direct personal attention.
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WILL WE ACTUALLY BE WORKING DIRECTLY WITH THE COACHES?Yes. Each week you'll have a private session with your coach. Plus, you can also book in office hours with any of our other specialist coaches including Matt and Nopadon. We have experts in everything, including analytics, lead gen, conversion, brand building, SEO, paid ads, conversion optimisation, marketplaces, driving app installs... all kinds of stuff, really.
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ANY OTHER MENTORS?Occasionally we bring in additional outside instructors to “go deep” on a particular topic. In the past, we’ve been fortunate to run sessions with Sean Ellis, Andy Johns and Gagan Biyani (founder of Udemy). No promises, but we’re always trying to bring in the best minds we can find!
Friday, September 15
4:00pm - 5:30pm BST
Introduction
Mapping your growth model
Finding language/market fit
Growth sprints & experimentation
Leadership & Mindset Shift
Monday, September 18
4:00pm - 5:30pm BST
Wednesday, September 20
4:00pm - 5:30pm BST
Friday, September 22