The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20Growth: Why Product-Market Fit is Not Enough, Revenue Does Not Create Usage, Metrics Must Be Before Strategy, Why it is Always Better to Concentrate than Diversify Marketing Channels and Secrets from Hubspot's Growth Engine with Brian Balfour @ Reforge

223 snips

Aug 16, 2023

Brian Balfour, Founder and CEO of Reforge and former VP of Growth at HubSpot, shares insights on growth strategies. He emphasizes that product-market fit is just the starting line, not the finish. Avoiding common pitfalls in product channel and channel model fit is crucial for success. Balfour discusses the importance of hiring growth personnel early and focusing on one effective growth channel. He also shares lessons from his time at HubSpot and how AI is reshaping growth strategies, proving that qualitative analysis remains indispensable.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Entry into Growth

Brian Balfour entered growth through early Facebook platform social gaming.
This experience, like for many "growth OGs," provided a perfect environment for learning growth due to its virality, quantitative nature, and psychological focus.

ADVICE

Conviction and Patience

Recognize that growth options are finite, focusing on key areas.
Have conviction and patience in your chosen strategies, as growth often takes time to compound.

INSIGHT

Growth Model vs. Business Model

Evaluate growth by looking at improving inputs within the system, not just outputs.
Understand the growth model, how users lead to more users, which is different from a financial model.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Brian Balfour is the Founder and CEO of Reforge. Previously, he was the VP of Growth @ HubSpot. Prior to HubSpot, he was an EIR @ Trinity Ventures and founder of Boundless Learning and Viximo. He advises companies including Blue Bottle Coffee, Gametime, Lumoid, GrabCAD, and Help Scout on growth and customer acquisition.

In Today's Episode with Brian Balfour We Discuss:

1. Entry into Growth and Lessons from Hubspot:

How did Brian make his entry into the world of growth?
What does Brian know now about growth that he wishes he had known when he started in growth?
What are 1-2 of his single biggest takeaways from his time at Hubspot that impacted his mindset?

2. The Foundations:

What is growth? What is it not?
What does Brian mean when he says "all growth can be boiled down to 4 things"?
When is the right time to bring in your first growth person?
Should the first growth person be senior or junior?
Should the growth team be standalone or sit within an existing function?

3. The Importance of Product Channel Fit:

What is product channel fit? How should founders approach it?
How do you know when you have it?
What are the single biggest mistakes founders make with regards to PCF?

4. Next Comes Channel Model Fit:

What is channel model fit? How should founders approach it?
What are clear indicators that you have or do not have channel model fit?
What are the biggest mistakes founders make with CMF?

5. Finally, Model Market Fit:

What is model market fit? How should founders approach it?
What are clear indicators that you have or do not have model market fit?
What are the biggest mistakes founders make with MMF?

6. Brian Balfour: AMA:

Why is product market fit not enough?
What does Brian mean when he says "revenue does not create usage"?
What are the biggest dangers of mixing customers and users?
What do Hubspot do better than anyone else to know when an existing product/strategy is dying?
Is it always better to diversify marketing channels?