The Shopify Growth Show

On this episode, Jim conducts a retrospective on the best and often under appreciated segments from 2023. He highlights the top 5 podcasts and the best gems from episodes with Ming Zhao (Proven CEO), Natalie Ellis (Bossbabe CEO), Craig Swanson (4X Founder), and Bryan Clayton (GreenPal CEO). Resources:A Look Back at My 2023 (Blog Post)Jim Huffman websiteJim's TwitterGrowthHitThe Growth Marketer's Playbook Additional episodes you might enjoy:Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

Jim does a year in review and reflects on the ups and downs of this past year, focusing on both business and personal highlights.TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODEYear in ReviewTop moments Efficiency: easy change to save big moneyNot having a mental breakdown!Buying a CompanySpeaking Across the countryManaging Daily MoodGirl dadMarriage hacks   Resources:A Look Back at My 2023 (Blog Post)Jim Huffman websiteJim's TwitterGrowthHitThe Growth Marketer's Playbook Additional episodes you might enjoy:Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

In this episode Jim talks with Mark Sims, founder and CEO of Fikes. Mark talks about the beauty of boring businesses, the strategy for acquisition and how to utilize your superpowers to grow a startup. TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODEThe advantages of acquisitionTelling and selling vs asking and understandingThe beauty of boring businessesLeaning into your super power Mistakes to avoidThe essential skillset from sportsMilestones of a growing company Resources:FikesMark SimsJim Huffman websiteJim's TwitterGrowthHitThe Growth Marketer's PlaybookAdditional episodes you might enjoy:Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51) 

Jim gives a long overdue update on the $3M challenge and reveals an exciting new acquisition before doing a deep dive into the strategy behind the move and tactics for growth going forward.TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODEUpdate on the $3MWinsLossesAcquisition UpdateNeat Apparel, moats and unfair advantages3 phases of acquisitionGrowth plan Resources:Neat ApparelJim Huffman websiteJim's TwitterGrowthHitThe Growth Marketer's Playbook  Additional episodes you might enjoy:Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

This week, Jim is joined by Krish Ramineni, CEO of Fireflies to discuss how grow a business through product led growth. Krish shares his insights about the importance of distribution and how to create proper culture within a startup before expanding on some of the best opportunities for someone starting a business in 2024.TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODEWhat is FirefliesCreating internal growthBuilding a remote companyHow to structure your weekFireflies first 100 customersProduct led Growth2024 AI product opportunities Resources:FirefliesJim Huffman websiteJim's TwitterGrowthHitThe Growth Marketer's Playbook  Additional episodes you might enjoy:Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51) 

This week, Jim is joined by Bryan Smith. Bryan has a background in sports analytics, helping teams assess the potential as well as risk of players before during recruitment. With his company Leon VC, Bryan has applied this approach entrepreneurship using data analysis to find and assess the potential founders. Bryan shares his insights and what characteristics define a truly great entrepreneur.TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODEUsing data to identify potential in athletes and foundersThe KPI’s for successful foundersWhat is resilienceDifferent types of founder profilesFounder CommunityBlind spot recognitionDisruption opportunitiesHacks to win the dayResources:Leon VCJim Huffman websiteJim's TwitterGrowthHitThe Growth Marketer's PlaybookAdditional episodes you might enjoy:Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

This week, Jim is joined by Maja Voje, someone who literally wrote the book on Go To Market strategy. Together they get tactical about this incredibly important stage of business development and Maja shares some amazing frameworks to help make any businesses GTM strategy a success.TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODEWhat is GTM: different than product launchWhat is the beach head strategyThe difference between Prince Charles and Ozzy OsbourneCommon mistakes The military approachThe grunt work thresholdTalking to customersDemand generation vs demand captureOptimizing for profit vs adoptionResources:BOOKMaja WebsiteJim Huffman websiteJim's TwitterGrowthHitThe Growth Marketer's Playbook  Additional episodes you might enjoy:Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51) 

In this episode, Jim joins the ECWID team to dive into key tactics and approaches that fuel e-commerce growth, helping brands make the most of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events.TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE GrowthHit story and new businesses.Tactics: Black Friday and cyber MondayNew customer acquisition or profitActivation offersWhen to startCarousel adHow to win giftingBundlingEmails and pattern interruptsOffer led growthInfluencer campaignsResources: Jim Huffman websiteJim's TwitterGrowthHitThe Growth Marketer's Playbook  Additional episodes you might enjoy:Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51) 

This week, Jim is joined by a man who is literally responsible for the creation of thousands of podcasts, including this one. Josh Nielsen is the founder of Zencastr, a podcast recording service. Josh talks about how he built the service in his free time while working as a contract engineer and reveals the tactics and hacks he used to launch and eventually pivot to a venture backed tech startup.TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODEWhat is ZencastrSelecting the right problemSelecting the right waveMarketing hack: painpoint automationPricing tacticsPivoting to raising capitalPivoting from product led growth to marketing led growth Resources:https://zencastr.com/Jim Huffman websiteJim's TwitterGrowthHitThe Growth Marketer's Playbook Additional episodes you might enjoy:Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

Today, Jim is joined by Nataraj Sindam who has spent his entire career learning the ins and outs of the tech industry. He and Jim analyze some of the overlooked trends happening in tech today and give some hot takes on some of the world's biggest companies. TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODEDifferent paths into tech entrepreneurshipElon’s X strategy Amazon’s Alexa problemAmazon AdsPredictions: RivianFood as healthcareVC trendsResources:https://above-average.beehiiv.com/thestartupproject.io Jim Huffman websiteJim's TwitterGrowthHitThe Growth Marketer's Playbook Additional episodes you might enjoy:Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)