Growth Hacking Your Mindset

“I have not failed 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

- Thomas Edison

Mad Men’s Don Draper died in Silicon Valley sometime around 2010; 20-year-old programmers in hoodies killed him.

What I mean is that most startups can’t afford traditional advertising, so they devised a smart, free way to market their services and find customers: growth hacking.

If you’re familiar with lean startup methodology, this tune will sound familiar: to rapidly experiment with marketing tactics, measure results closely, identify what works, then modify your experiment repeatedly, all in the pursuit of relentless growth.

For example, in its infancy, Airbnb tried out tactics to sign up new users. But when it added a simple “share to Craigslist” button to its listings, growth exploded.