How I Grew This

In the age of increasing levels of automation, it’s easy to get bogged down with the desire to automate as much as possible. However, this isn’t always in the best interest of your product’s users. Chris Yu has worked in various fields, from venture capital to gaming, before landing at Microsoft-acquired productivity app, MileIQ. Chris shares his perspective on the importance of giving your users choice, the ability to trade off product decisions based on a north star metric, and his stance on how mobile has quickly surpassed the web experience. Hear these stories and more on this episode of How I Grew This. Listen now on Apple Podcasts Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and more.

What can be gleaned from the stories at the geographic and technological edge between the US and China? As a Bay Area native, how did a journey back to China lead to strategic growth for American companies like LinkedIn and Tesla who hadn’t yet unlocked the Chinese market? Hear about the way Pinterest grew pre-IPO, how Linus is leading his team with compassion at Coinbase, and how his appearance on a Chinese dating show became a user acquisition strategy. Hear all this and more on this episode of How I Grew This. Listen now on Apple Podcasts Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and more.

How do you achieve growth when the system is full of obstacles? With today’s guest, Lomit Patel, we talk about choosing to take decisive action towards your goals whether that’s in your own career or with your product. From working his way up the ladder to his dream job to having the foresight to push for utilizing AI at a time when it was still very new, Lomit has proved to be a catalyst for immense growth. More on Lomit’s story on this episode of How I Grew This. Listen now on Apple Podcasts Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher and more.

How does someone with a passion for cooking end up leading a team driving business-critical decisions? What does it take to teach yourself how to code then apply that to how you are able to help a company grow? This story, how she learned to tell stories with data at Visa, the 2x2 matrix thinking model, and when to make a career jump into (or out of) the startup world is featured on this episode of How I Grew This with Farah Abuzeid of Depop.

What does it take to recreate the organic growth of the largest online delivery grocery in the US in a new market like Mexico? How do you define growth when new markets take time to mature and show actual business outcomes? Our next guest, Adithi Sampath, has worked across a variety of industries building products in gaming, insurance, and now is forging the online grocery experience for Walmart Grocery Mexico.

Aim big. This theme, along with successful cross-collaboration, aligning with strong mentors, and leading by example, seems to be common in many growth stories. How does the theme of family fit in? Manoj Tolety shares what he’s learned from becoming a parent and how human behavior, a dash of luck, and hard work drives both personal and professional growth. This, traveling the world every 6 months for eBay, increasing his app budget by 3x, and more are featured on this episode of How I Grew This with Manoj Tolety of StubHub. Listen now on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher!

What does it take to build a leading Peer-to-Peer car-sharing company when the market is exploding with new competitors? How do you continue to drive growth after your company gets acquired? This, the stories of learning from failure, recruiting his first users one by one, and the decisions he made that ensured the product remained a market leader, are in our third episode of “How I Grew This” with Vincent Saint-Martin of OuiCar.

What does it take to bring an iconic brand and experience to digital? What makes the Philz app one of the most loved and used apps in the industry and how do you take the specific vision of a founder and transform into an on par digital experience? That and stories of success, failure, the invention of the mobile boarding pass and how Philz ended up on HBO’s Silicon Valley are featured in our first episode of “How I Grew This” with Francisca Hawkins of Philz Coffee.

Some get to join a company that redefines an industry once in their life. Sheila has done it twice. As Dropbox’s first marketing hire, she led the transition from a consumer-facing product to one with an enterprise focus. Now at Opendoor, she is redefining a 100+ year-old industry and revolutionizing the way real estate is bought and sold. This, stories of doubling market share for Opendoor in 3 months, and how brands should approach marketing and caring for customers during a pandemic, are featured in our podcast episode with Sheila Vashee of Opendoor. Listen and subscribe on Apple/Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and YouTube!

Emre Ertan is the Chief Product Officer at Getir. Emre has previously directed growth at Slice Technologies and Zum. He also co-founded not one but two companies, Mobito and Soru. Get people to share their referral links on social media, specifically mass social media avenues like timelines posts and groups. The more people share about your product, the higher the chances of their posts being featured (or “going viral”) on Facebook. This strategy takes time, requires an experimental mindset, and may require significant investments. Focus on nailing your product and service for your customers. If your product and customer service are not flawless, your viral marketing efforts can backfire on your brand. Try enabling local businesses even if you are not in a niche with a hyperlocal model. Local businesses can provide faster turnaround times and more personalized service to your customer. Have a “lighthouse customer” (similar to your ICP) who provides a base. From here, you can create a framework for services, products, and experiences for the rest of your customers. Start your business by thinking comprehensively about the problem you will solve. If you want to start a company, the problem you will solve must be a common issue for a broad audience. If the problem you want to solve is already being solved by another company, you can join forces and solve it as a part of a team.