Great startups don’t waste time on small stuff. 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 startup works hard, but great startups prioritize incredibly well.
A growth model is a flowchart that maps out how your business finds, acquires, and delights new customers. It will show you the bottlenecks where your limited resources can have the greatest impact, mathematically, on your growth.
Use your growth model to create a metrics-driven culture and help everyone eschew busywork and align around the highest-impact initiatives.
In this one-hour session, you will learn:
Identify your North Star Metric - Find a single number that tracks customer value delivery and predicts growth. Plus learn why revenue is a dangerous North Star.
Map your growth model - Work backwards from your North Star to map your growth model as a handful of critical KPIs that track the drivers of your growth. Then find the positive feedback loops that can drive sustained growth.
Find your rate-limiting step - Identify your main bottleneck where you can focus for maximum impact.
Avoid perverse incentives - Stress test your model to help you spot perverse incentives that could backfire.
Create a metrics-driven culture - Get a paint-by-numbers process to roll this out across your entire company to help everyone focus on the most impactful work.
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 Leadswho struggle to convince their founders that growth is more than just marketing tactics and "turning dials."
03
Growth leaders in larger companieswho 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."
Well facilitated and engaging throughout; it helped pull me our of the detail and refocus around what really matters for our company.
Mark Davies
Chief of Staff, Mo
It's a great framework & reminder to focus on the big picture in a quant-heavy, scientific way. Great for founders & growth leaders.
Kristen Stockdale
Head of Marketing
A super-actionable, hands-on session that punches way, WAY above its weight in terms of value delivered and inspiration gained.
Rosie Higgins
Co-Founder , Syntensor
On a minute for minute value — this session blows it out of the water. It's strategic, tactical, and immediately applicable 10 minutes in.
Niket Desai
Product Marketing, Laurel
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
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.
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.
How to find your North Star Metric
Feedback loops & constraints
Example growth models (SaaS, Marketplaces, Ecommerce)
Finding your key drivers
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
Why this matters more than anything else
The neuroscience of human perception
How to find the language that picks the lock
Jobs-to-be-done and the 4 Forces
Headlines, landing pages & ads
How to validate language quickly (even with no traffic)
How to prioritise experiments (hint: not using I.C.E.)
Designing & running growth experiments
Minimum Viable Test: Small tests of big ideas
Leadership & mindset shift
04
How great leaders unstick people's thinking:
Overcoming sunk-cost bias
Speed vs. perfectionism
Deprioritizing "sevens" to focus on "tens."
When leaders refuse to listen…
When nothing’s working…
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
4:00pm - 5:30pm BST
4-6 HOUTS PER WEEK
COURSE SCHEDULE
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
That’ll depend on implementation. You leave with practical tools, processes, and artifacts your team can continue using long after the workshop. We can also provide follow-up support to help sustain the changes.
Yes. Matt leads all workshops. Nopadon co-leads Jobs to Be Done and Experimentation engagements.
No. Every session is 100% built around your business with outputs you can use right away. You’ll work on your actual product, metrics, messaging, and roadmap.
In-person is preferred. We’re based in London and can travel.* Most workshops can also be delivered remotely via Zoom or Teams.
Some engagements are multi-part or multi-day. We’ll scope the right structure together on the scoping call.
You keep all frameworks, artifacts, and deliverables. If helpful, we’re available for additional support as you put the work into practice.
We’ve worked with 300+ companies across sectors, from startups to large enterprises.
Most of our work is with startups and scale-ups. We’ve also helped larger organizations adopt these frameworks, including Daimler, Bosch, DCA Healthcare, and Cambridge University Press.
Yes. Matt leads all workshops. Nopadon co-leads Jobs to Be Done and Experimentation engagements.
No. Every session is 100% built around your business with outputs you can use right away. You’ll work on your actual product, metrics, messaging, and roadmap.
In-person is preferred. We’re based in London and can travel.* Most workshops can also be delivered remotely via Zoom or Teams.
Some engagements are multi-part or multi-day. We’ll scope the right structure together on the scoping call.
You keep all frameworks, artifacts, and deliverables. If helpful, we’re available for additional support as you put the work into practice.
We’ve worked with 300+ companies across sectors, from startups to large enterprises.
Most of our work is with startups and scale-ups. We’ve also helped larger organizations adopt these frameworks, including Daimler, Bosch, DCA Healthcare, and Cambridge University Press.
That’ll depend on implementation. You leave with practical tools, processes, and artifacts your team can continue using long after the workshop. We can also provide follow-up support to help sustain the changes.
You work directly with people who built these systems at top companies, applying the process to your business with weekly execution and accountability. No theory or case studies.
The best teams use systematic processes to maintain their edge. Companies like Airbnb and HubSpot didn't stop improving their growth engines when they hit scale – they doubled down on the process.
Between our 19 specialist coaches, we can usually pair you with someone with direct experience in your space
Serious teams already spend 1-3 days/week on growth – we help you maximize every hour. Plan to set aside 2-4 hours/week for our workshops, coaching, and office ours.
Absolutely. We can introduce you to teams with similar businesses once we offer you a place.
Full refund up to week 3. But we've worked with SaaS, marketplaces, D2C, mobile apps – the process works because it's about finding what drives YOUR growth, not copying others.
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.
If you change your mind for any reason in the first 3 weeks of the program, 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 and interview process).
Advisors give advice. We roll up our sleeves and work with you weekly. Big difference between "you should try X" and "here's exactly how to test X by Friday."
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.
Yes, participants will have access to the recordings for one year from the program start date.
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.
Great. They'll love having a structured process to get buy-in from engineering and product. Plus external validation that their ideas are right. Every Head of Growth we've worked with says it made their job easier, not harder.
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.
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.
Our discussions must be 100% candid. Therefore, we cannot allow competing companies under any circumstances. We’ll manage this through the application process.
Only 30 companies, so that each one can get direct personal attention.
Up to six people, which should include founders, and we recommend also your head of growth and/or product and analytics (if you have them) . 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.
Not at this time.
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 and most relevant minds we can find!
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!
We don't teach generic frameworks. We help you find YOUR specific growth levers and execute them. No lectures about "growth hacking" – just hands-on work on your actual business with coaches who've done it before.
This replaces the work you're already doing, not adds to it. You'll actually save time by killing projects that don't matter. Most teams spend 10-15 hours/week on growth anyway – we'll make those hours count.
Yes. Once you're in, you can send new team members through any future cohort (up to four) at no extra cost. Great for onboarding!
Ticket Policy:
Sorry, each ticket grants admission for one individual to the entire event. Tickets are non-transferable and cannot be shared between multiple attendees. Similar to movie or concert tickets, Turing Fest x SYSTM tickets are designed for use by a single person throughout the duration of the conference. This policy ensures a fair experience for all attendees and helps us maintain accurate attendance records.
Join our waiting list and we'll notify you as soon as tickets are available.
Attendee Privacy and Networking:
We prioritize attendee privacy and do not share participant lists before or after the event. However, Turing Fest x SYSTM offers numerous opportunities for meaningful connections:
• Coffee and lunch breaks
• Happy hour
• Evening social events
• Event app for digital networking (available pre-event)
These diverse networking options ensure you can connect with fellow attendees in person, fostering genuine relationships within our community.
We’re looking for folks to help with registration, ushering, marketing, speaker management, expo management, and more. Contact us at claire@systm.co for more information.
If you would like a sponsor deck please contact contact matt@systm.co for more information.
You will be able to:
Identify your North Star Metric:Find a single number that tracks customer value delivery and predicts growth. Plus learn why revenue is a dangerous North Star.
Map your growth model: Work backwards from your North Star to map your growth model as a handful of critical KPIs that track the drivers of your growth. Then find the positive feedback loops that can drive sustained growth.
Find your rate-limiting step: Identify your main bottleneck where you can focus for maximum impact.
Avoid perverse incentives: Stress test your model to help you spot perverse incentives that could backfire.
Create a metrics-driven culture: Get a paint-by-numbers process to roll this out across your entire company to help everyone focus on the most impactful work.
