🚀 Finding Your Growth Channels...

Hi there,

From the ideal validation tools to automating customer retention, strategies for boosting your revenue without raising prices to reasons MVPs sometimes crash and burn, we’re here to add value at every stage of your innovation journey:

1. Startup Phase

2. Growth Phase

3. Scale/Sale Phase

Why MVPs Fail

A solid MVP can make or break a startup, but as tech product innovator Vikas Agarwal notes here, many fail due to common traps: 1) launching prematurely (a "false start") without full problem-solution validation, 2) skipping proper problem definition, which leaves key pain points unaddressed, and 3) jumping too quickly into development without iterative refinement. For example, see these 7 retail MVP examples – four that succeeded and three that missed – revealing how proper testing and validation shape lasting impact.

Validation Tools and Platforms

The “smoke test”, as shown in this video, is a fast-track method to validate demand without building a full product. By setting up a landing page to showcase your product on value proposition alone, you can gauge willingness to buy, helping you confirm demand early and prioritise features that matter. For creating a smoke test, platforms like Webflow or Softr simplify landing page design, Hotjar helps track where users click, and Zapier or Make can automate responses – all without coding. ChatGPT and Claude 2 can help write while Microsoft Designer adds polished visuals to complete your validation smoke test.

Metrics for a Successful MVP

When building an MVP, defining and tracking success is more than just hitting validation milestones; it’s about collecting data that can tell you whether to continue or pivot. You need two things for that: 1) customer feedback and 2) quantifiable metrics. Key performance indicators like net promoter score (NPS), daily active users, and churn rate indicate user engagement and retention. Financial metrics, such as monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and customer acquisition cost (CAC), help assess scalability and profitability. Ultimately, as shown in this video, success metrics offer a guidepost, allowing you to refine and iterate your product to meet market needs and drive meaningful growth.

Are you in the start phase? Have questions? Hit reply and let us know how we can help.

How to Identify and Prioritise the Best Channels for Growth

The Bullseye Framework by DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg is a method to systematically test and prioritise growth channels (as he explains here). The approach, as outlined in detail here, is to 1) Start with “What’s Possible?” by brainstorming every potential marketing channel that could work; then 2) refine to “What’s Probable?” by shortlisting three to five likely candidates, testing them quickly, and gathering preliminary data; finally, 3) focus on “What’s Working?” by committing fully to one or two channels that yield the best results at a sustainable acquisition cost.

Automating Customer Acquisition & Retention

Most people focus on automating their outbound channels, but, according to this London CEO, you get more value when 1) automating your onboarding, as it engages new users immediately while 2) swift responses through chatbots streamline customer queries. Now if you can 3) tailor automated messages to existing clients’ behaviours and preferences, you foster more engagement. 4) Automated reminders for abandoned carts and 5) continuous optimisation of your automation to serve existing customers reinforce loyalty, which also attracts new customers for sustainable growth.

Creating a Scalable Customer Referral Program

As SaaS founder TK Kader explains in this video (warning: a little salesy but rings true), it pays to 1) reach out to customers during “happy moments” like after a positive experience or high NPS score, 2) keep asking frequently (people don’t refer on first contact, they need to be reminded a few times), 3) make it super easy by providing pre-drafted referral messages, accessible links, and landing pages that highlight your program benefits. Moreover, 4) offer thoughtful, non-monetary incentives like exclusive access or recognition (which customers often value more than gift cards) and 5) track your referral program metrics closely to refine and scale the program efficiently.

Need help growing faster? Maybe it's augmenting your team, or perhaps coffee with one of our growth experts — either way, hit reply and let’s find your solution.

Efficient Scaling: Key Processes to Automate

According to workflow automation solutions like Cflow, all businesses could automate 1) sales/CRM, 2) customer support, 3) task assignments and 4) leave and expense approvals. However, as Dr Asaf Darash of Regpack writes here, scale-ups should approach automation thoughtfully. Automating too early may be counterproductive, potentially locking you into workflows that need further adaptation. Instead, the key is to first manually test and refine processes to an efficient baseline (aiming for an 80% effectiveness rate), only automating once stability is achieved. That said, 5) billing and payment processes can be automated from the start.

Strategies to Boost Revenue Without Raising Prices

As you grow, look for ways to 1) streamline overheads, like office space and cloud services, says business advisor Cogen Analytics here, and then look to 2) automate parts of the customer acquisition journey, like self-service onboarding and demo options to try to increase sales volume at a lower CAC. Next, 3) optimise direct costs such as support by automating as far as possible, and then keep an eye on 4) team productivity by ensuring everyone focuses on high-impact work and automating before adding to headcount. Streamlining these could help you unlock higher profitability before having to adjust pricing.

Profitability Metrics that Matter: KPIs for Scaling

Apart from your basic CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), LTV (Lifetime Value) and Net Revenue Retention, UK-based product growth veteran Rodrigo Fernandez shares in this video a few useful drill-down metrics for scale-ups. 1) Measure Time to Value to speed up the journey to a user’s first "aha" moment, 2) track Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) instead of old-school MQLs, as these are users actively experiencing your product and primed to convert, 3) check Feature Adoption Rate to ensure customers use and find value in your most essential features and 4) monitor Key Usage Indicators (KUIs) which go beyond logins to track more meaningful interactions.

Want to scale faster? We have people that are comfortable with the discomfort of the scale phase. Hit reply and let us know how we can augment your team.

Have your say…

Hit reply if you think we’ve hit or missed the mark, tell us what you’d like to see or hear more of and, just in general, what would really add value to your journey…

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