How to Grow Your Startup. Featuring “Growth Levers and How to Find Them” Author and Startup Advisor Matt Lerner (Founder & CEO, SYSTM) | Rebroadcast

Dec 5, 2025

Matt Lerner, the founder and CEO of SYSTM, shares his expertise on startup growth and his book, 'Growth Levers and How to Find Them.' He dives into the key insight that 90% of growth comes from 10% of efforts, emphasizing the importance of rapid learning and experimentation. Matt discusses the Jobs-to-be-Done approach for understanding customer needs and the significance of reaching the 'aha' moment quickly. He also highlights common pitfalls founders face and provides practical strategies for effective growth sprints.

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00:00 / 00:00

Find The 10% That Drives 90% Growth

Most startups find 90% of their growth from ~10% of their experiments.
The goal is to find that 10% as quickly as possible through focused testing.

00:00 / 00:00

Avoid Three Startup Failure Patterns

Avoid three common failure patterns: overthinkers, underthinkers, and delegators.
Learn fast by balancing thoughtful hypotheses with rapid execution and focused hiring.

00:00 / 00:00

Learning Pace Beats Perfect Plans

Pace of learning is critical because runway is limited and you must test many ideas.
Rapid iteration maximizes chances of finding the big lever before funds run out.

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“So if you take any great startup and look backwards, you'll see that 90 percent of their growth came from like 10 percent of the stuff that they tried. So how do you find that 10 percent as quickly as possible?”

Matt Lerner has advised hundreds of startups on how to grow. Now, the CEO of SYSTM has written a book called Growth Levers and How to Find Them where he shares his approach. This episode of CRAFTED. is full of actionable advice on how you can grow your products and companies. Matt will tell us about the mindset shift founders need to make from thinking about their products to thinking about their customers needs. We'll talk about jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) style interviewing and why it's such a powerful approach, but also why at first Matt was put off by some of the overly academic language that often goes with jobs. And we'll talk about how you can get new customers to that aha moment as quickly as possible, so they stick with your product. Plus, lots of real talk about founders and the mistakes they make.

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Featured voices:

Matt Lerner (Founder and CEO of SYSTM; the book is Growth Levers and How to Find Them)
Me (Dan Blumberg) — I’m the host of CRAFTED. and the founder of Modern Product Minds. HMU if you want to build something great. I love building from zero to one.

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Key Moments:

(02:10) - 90 percent of growth comes 10 percent of the stuff you try
(03:43) - Over-thinkers, under-thinkers, and delegators: the 3 types of founders and the mistakes they make
(07:30) - Why the pace of learning is so important
(09:41) - Great examples of companies that learn quickly
(10:42) - The “locksmith moment” and why you need to find yours
(12:35) - Jobs-to-be-Done style interviewing and why it’s so effective
(13:57) - How to do a JTBD interview
(15:05) - The mindset shift founders need to make from thinking about their product to thinking about the customers’ needs – and why it’s so hard for them to do so
(21:14) - Growth Sprints and how to set them up for success
(24:57) - Retention and customer activation: still (!) overlooked by most and why it’s so critical
(28:50) - Matt writes a blog post on the spot about how working at an oil refinery taught him about startups
(31:26) - Writing a book is not an agile process! And the fantastic reception for Growth Levers