How to find and pull startup growth levers | Matt Lerner (Founder and CEO at SYSTM, Author of Growth Levers)
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Matt Lerner is the Founder and CEO at SYSTM, a startup coaching consultancy that helps high-potential companies grow their business. Matt also authored the book “Growth Levers”, which shares his framework that's helped over 200 seed-stage startups grow as much as 100x. Previously, Matt was on the early growth team at PayPal, a partner at 500 Startups, and a guest lecturer at Stanford Business School.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
Understanding the key drivers of startup success
Applying the Growth Lever framework
Several case studies
Customer-centric growth tactics
Adapting growth levers for different business models
Referenced:
Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/)
Bold Commerce: https://boldcommerce.com/)
Calm: https://www.calm.com/)
Caribou: https://www.usecaribou.com/)
eBay: https://www.ebay.com/)
FATMAP: https://fatmap.com/)
Growth Levers and How to Find Them: https://www.systm.co/growth-levers-matt-lerner-book)
PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/)
Peter Karpas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterkarpas/)
Popsa: https://popsa.com/)
Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/)
Sonic Jobs: https://www.sonicjobs.com/)
SYSTM: https://www.systm.co/)
Where to find Matt Lerner:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewlerner/)
Twitter/X: https://x.com/matthlerner)
Where to find Brett Berson:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/)
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson)
Where to find First Round Capital:
Website: https://firstround.com/)
First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/)
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround)
This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast)
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(03:11) The hidden truth about startup success
(05:10) Popsa's journey: A case study in growth
(07:31) Breaking down the growth lever framework
(11:30) Understanding the customer's journey
(14:14) The art of customer interviews
(18:07) Unlocking growth through customer insights
(24:23) The triple threat: Founder failure modes
(27:32) The power of founder-led growth strategies
(32:42) Unlocking growth bottlenecks
(36:40) Timing and implementation of growth strategies
(39:43) Founder red flags
(41:32) Crafting effective growth experiments
(43:14) Why customer mindset is the ultimate growth driver
(46:19) The power law of business
(48:59) Why startups don’t need paid marketing
(50:47) Growth levers for sales-driven companies
(53:43) Matt's own application of growth principles
(55:39) Growth levers in B2B sales
(57:05) Finding customer "locksmith moments"
(64:08) The mentor who shaped Matt's thinking
