Mostly Growth

The hosts celebrate their surprising ranking in Croatia before delving into the challenges of podcast growth. They discuss why only 2% of startups reach significant revenue and debate the harsh realities of winner-take-all markets. Creative tactics for growth are shared, from leveraging LinkedIn to optimizing discoverability. Business blunders are critiqued, along with the innovative pricing strategies of children’s venues. Insights on niche focus and perseverance offer valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Conference season is back, and CJ and Kyle are swapping stories from the stage—how to nail a keynote, whether conferences are worth the money, and why your walkout song matters more than you think. From there, they dig into a new a16z report revealing where AI startups are actually spending their dollars, and CJ shares results from his summer survey showing that CFOs talk a big game about measuring AI ROI—but nobody knows how to do it. The crew also unpacks how SaaS companies like Slack are bundling AI into their products and hiking prices, before spiraling into a late-night “potentially reliable” rabbit hole featuring a Soviet pole vaulter, beat-and-raise forecasting, and J. Edgar Hoover. They close with lessons on pricing in the real world (yes, Amsterdam’s architecture is involved) and one experiment CJ tried this week.Timestamps:00:00 Preview and Intro01:28 Walkout Songs & Kicking Off Conference Season03:39 How To Give a Great Keynote and Not Bore the Room10:10 Are Conferences Worth the Money14:21 What AI Companies Are Actually Paying For — The a16z Report20:08 Summer Survey Results: The Elusive ROI of AI25:45 Why No One Knows How To Measure ROI on AI29:03 SaaS Companies Forcing AI — Bundling, Pricing, and Pushback33:57 A Potentially Reliable Thing I Read at 2 AM35:00 Soviet Pole Vaulter, Beat-and-Raise Forecasting & Hoover’s Borders39:20 Pricing in the Real World — Lessons from Amsterdam’s Skinny Houses42:56 Something I Tried This Week — FixyerEpisodes Referenced:Are You Bad at LinkedIn… or Is the Algorithm Lying?Why Founders Are Posting Sad DinnersLinks:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrqSrpOfhWshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmH4iWoJfTohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1tl66trXTQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPmAf5O8crohttps://www.getmobly.com/https://a16z.com/the-ai-application-spending-report-where-startup-dollars-really-go/https://d1lamhf6l6yk6d.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/10/250923-B2B-Top-50-ILG-A-r6.pnghttps://www.growthunhinged.com/p/how-to-nail-your-next-big-talkhttps://www.leahtharin.com/p/113-vincent-pierri-how-to-deal-withhttps://www.freepik.com/https://cluely.com/https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/it-was-the-summer-of-25https://www.crescendo.ai/https://www.linkedin.com/posts/justintropic_slack-just-raised-prices-125-by-forcing-activity-7379132597009870848-XI6N/https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/what-a-soviet-era-pole-vaulter-can-teach-us-about-beating-and-raisinghttps://www.nytimes.com/1972/05/03/archives/j-edgar-hoover-made-the-fbi-formidable-with-politics-publicity-and.htmlhttps://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/73vh2j/til_that_the_dutch_government_once_enforced_a_tax/https://www.clearspaceliving.com/blog/why-dutch-stairs-are-so-steep/https://mjwrightnz.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/amsterdams-taxing-narrow-houses/https://www.fyxer.com/

Kyle officially joins the solopreneur ranks — and immediately finds out that freedom comes with invoices, admin, and double LLC fees. CJ welcomes him to the chaos before breaking down Wealthfront’s IPO, a masterclass in efficiency with 46% EBITDA margins and a Rule of 71. From there, the crew dives into take-private season in SaaS, unpacking why companies like Couchbase and PagerDuty are retreating from the public markets. Then it’s onto LinkedIn chaos — the algorithm, the pitch-slaps, and the mystery of why everyone’s engagement tanked. They close with a tangent only this show could pull off: a Japanese man’s world record sprint on all fours, the surprising Guinness origins, and a lightning round on Waymo’s taxi empire and trying out Stripe.00:00 – Intro04:40 – Kyle Goes Solopreneur: What Could Go Wrong?10:16 – The Wealthfront IPO Breakdown22:33 – Take-Private Season27:27 – Private Equity: Efficiency or Exploitation?32:27 – Are You Bad at LinkedIn, or Is the Algorithm?43:17 – The LinkedIn Pitch Slap46:33 – Obscure World Records48:01 – Lightning Round: Waymo & StripeLinkshttps://www.growthunhinged.com/p/a-new-chapterhttps://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/wealthfront-ipo-s1-breakdownhttps://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/netskope-ipo-s1-breakdownhttps://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/navan-ipo-s1-breakdownhttps://mercury.com/https://www.lookingforleverage.com/p/take-private-sznhttps://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/what-a-soviet-era-pole-vaulter-can-teach-us-about-beating-and-raisinghttps://tuck.dartmouth.edu/news/articles/where-did-all-the-public-companies-gohttps://www.axios.com/2024/05/31/vista-equity-pluralsighthttps://www.amazon.com/Plunder-Private-Equitys-Pillage-America/dp/1541702107https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/business/youth-sports-private-equity.htmlhttps://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/kkr-buy-varsity-brands-bain-capital-475-billion-sources-say-2024-07-03/https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/recent-activity/all/https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2025/9/japanese-man-runs-100-m-on-all-fours-in-blistering-time-after-studying-way-animals-movehttps://x.com/Patticus/status/1456266281833746445https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_World_Records#Historyhttps://web.archive.org/web/20120225172648/http://guinness.book-of-records.info/history.htmlhttps://www.stumbeanos.com/wpress/the-story-of-gus-comstock-worlds-coffee-drinking-champion/

The discussion kicks off with the impact of AI on traditional growth metrics like T2D3, questioning its relevance in today’s fast-paced market. They explore the alarming drop in SEO traffic and whether AI Engine Optimization can be the new game changer. The podcast dives into the harsh reality of today's tech job market, where CS grads face daunting unemployment rates. Lastly, the hosts poke fun at cringe-worthy LinkedIn posts and reveal unexpected pricing insights from renting traffic cones, combining humor with valuable lessons.

AI may be changing how we work, but it’s also changing how we interact with software — and not always for the better. CJ and Kyle Poyar dig into the growing pains of product design, IPOs in weird markets, and the unexpectedly depressing world of startup networking.Navan IPO: Why a $613M company burning $80M is still pushing for an $8B valuation — and what it says about the state of software IPOs.Prompt Bars Are Everywhere: The rise of “blank box” UX, why every app suddenly looks like ChatGPT, and how that’s giving users prompt anxiety.Referral Programs: Ponzi Scheme?: Incentives are up, CAC is down — but is this growth channel actually sustainable or just marketing MLMs in disguise?When to Disclose AI-Generated: If your calendar link feels cold, wait until your AI avatar shows up in an ad. We debate where the ethical (and strategic) line is for AI transparency.Business Blunders:• Sad Dinners (CJ): Why every LinkedIn dinner photo looks depressing — and what it says about startup culture.• ChatGPT Bad Chart (Kyle): An incredible dataset ruined by a rainbow mess of tiny fonts and meaningless categories.Potentially Reliable Thing at 2AM:• Arnold Twins Revenue (CJ): The wild deal behind Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comedy debut — and how it made more money than Terminator.• Reese Witherspoon Book Club (Kyle): Viral influence, middle-of-the-night decisions, and what media we trust half-asleep.Pricing in the Real World:• CJ: Iced Coffee Variable Pricing: Starbucks, cold brew, and the surprising economics of how product pricing actually works day to day.Something We Tried This Week:• Kyle: Fyxer Virtual Assistant: A hands-on experiment with offloading operational drag — what worked, what didn’t, and what Kyle’s still skeptical about.

AI was supposed to make software cheaper and companies more efficient. Instead, costs are exploding, CFOs are getting squeezed, and founders are pushing their teams harder than ever. CJ and Kyle Poyar dig into the economics behind AI, usage-based pricing, and what all of this means for SaaS growth.Usage-Based Credits: Why they’re supposed to save SaaS margins but often trap customers in bad deals.996 Hustle Culture: The rise of 9 a.m.–9 p.m., 6-days-a-week work schedules — and why it’s both romanticized and unsustainable.SaaS Payback Periods: Public companies now take 3+ years to recoup CAC, with growth slowing and margins tightening.Go-to-Market Engineers: Hype vs. reality of the “unicorn hire” role meant to automate GTM motions.Consumer Businesses: Are we sleeping on DTC plays like Blue Apron and ButcherBox while chasing AI trends?The “Cracked Engineer” Archetype: Why the most impactful hires might be the failed founders who love solving cross-functional problems.Subscription Carwashes: What they teach us about predictable revenue and retention psychology.More RVs Than EVs: What this surprising stat says about adoption curves and how we misread “the future.”This Week’s Growth Experiments: The tools, tactics, interview questions, and hacks we tried — what worked, what didn’t, and why Kyle is disillusioned by some of them.

Mostly growth brings together go-to-market strategist Kyle Poyar and CFO CJ Gustafson who swap smart takes on growing revenue and running a company. From pricing and packaging to unit economics, AI trends, and the day-to-day realities of leadership, they share candid insights for CEOs, CFOs, and CROs who want to grow and operate at a high level. Serious topics tackled with a light touch for leaders who keep the trains on time.