Andres Glusman - Testing, experimentation and competitive intelligence to craft products that sell - S4 Ep3

Brain hurt scale = 3/10. Andres Glusman was experimenting and validating products before the lean startup term was coined. It started in college selling peanuts at baseball games. Progressed to testing ads for the world's first digital agency. He was split testing Winnie the Pooh banner ads manually before ad software existed. Which led to his former agency boss getting him to solve an early traction problem for a startup called Meetup. Lashings of sales hustle and his revolutionary test-and-learn approach helped land Meetup their first round of funding and as they say, the rest is history.

But Andres' success was no accident. Raised by a family of scientists and years before behavioral economics even had a name, he combined an early interest in science with psychology and economics. Now, Andres is revered the world over as one of the OG's of the lean startup and experimentation-based product growth method.

However, in this episode we challenge the lean startup method as well as the data-driven culture favored by startups the world over. We talk about the importance of context. Using the right approach for the right stage of the business' maturity. Something full of tradeoffs and unavoidable error. But as he says, you need to, '...live with a tonne of error, because the alternative to that error is just more error'.

"You want to change behavior. Everyone is trying to get people to behave in a certain way, so understanding behavior first means you're most likely able to, but it [experimentation] can be done wrong and done too much - and I've done both. People got hooked on the sauce."

Also, find out which new product Andres is launching this week which will be a potential game-changer for the advertising world

So strap yourself in for a ride as we explore the whole dynamic between decision making and political or opinion based decision making. While weaving loads of stories from his career into the mix. There's something in here for everyone no matter how advanced your knowledge.

Peanuts....get your peanuts here