Gustaf Alströmer - Growth for Startups

TL;DR

Gustaf Alströmer argues that before pursuing growth, startups must first achieve product-market fit, best measured by retention (repeat usage) rather than vanity metrics. Founders should embrace “things that don’t scale” (e.g., talking to users, fixing bugs manually) in early days. Once retention is solid, growth comes from focusing on one or two channels (e.g.

Key insights

• Working on growth before product-market fit and good retention is a bad idea; most startups do not have product-market fit, though founders often delude themselves.
• The best way to measure product-market fit is unbiased retention data (repeat usage over time), not net promoter score, surveys, registered users, visitors, conversion rate, or giving away a paid prod
• “Doing things that don’t scale” – e.g., flying to meet customers, taking photos, fixing bugs immediately – is the only way to grow when very small and teaches lessons unreachable from a computer.