#132 - Dan Hockenmaier and Gustaf Alströmer

About this episode

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/danhockenmaier">Dan Hockenmaier</a> is the founder of the growth strategy firm <a href="https://www.basisone.com/">Basis One</a>. Prior to Basis One he was the Director of Growth Marketing at Thumbtack. You can learn more at <a href="https://www.basisone.com/">BasisOne.com</a>.<br><br><a href="https://twitter.com/gustaf">Gustaf Alströmer</a> is a Partner at YC. Prior to YC he was the Product Lead for Growth at Airbnb.<br><br>You can find Dan on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/danhockenmaier?lang=en" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">@danhockenmaier</a> and Gustaf is <a href="https://twitter.com/gustaf" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">@gustaf</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.<br><br>Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: <a href="https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/">https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/</a><br><a href="https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/"></a><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br></b><br>00:00 - Intro<br><br>00:50 - Dan's most unpopular advice<br><br>1:45 - What growth strategies do people jump on too soon?<br><br>2:20 - Questions Dan asks a company he's advising<br><br>3:50 - Traits Dan looks for in early growth hires<br><br>6:30 - How product and growth are tied together<br><br>11:30 - Good/bad learnings from Facebook's growth team<br><br>14:00 - A/B testing<br><br>17:00 - Retention and other metrics<br><br>20:45 - The importance of experimentation<br><br>23:45 - Getting ideas for A/B tests then choosing which to do<br><br>25:00 - Advice for employees who want to get a growth program going<br><br>29:00 - B2B vs consumer growth tactics<br><br>34:00 - Pricing experiments<br><br>35:30 - Paid marketing<br><br>39:30 - Launching in new markets<br><br>40:15 - Hiring for marketing<br><br>43:45 - Metrics for marketing hires<br><br>45:45 - Toni asks - Why did Airbnb grow so fast?<br><br>48:45 - Step function growth changes for companies that already had scale<br><br>49:55 - Michael Savage asks - It would be great to discuss growth into new regions for example Africa and UAE. What would their approach be, how does it differ from region to region, culture to culture? <br><br>52:30 - Justin LaRosa asks - What are some of the most common drivers of viral growth?<br><br>55:20 - Hiring a growth agency vs building your own team<br><br>58:20 - How do you think about growth in the context of improving humanity?<br></p>