1) Early stage startups must focus on product-market fit, retention, and engagement to drive growth. 2) Building a growth-oriented organization requires focusing on key metrics like monthly active users and hours spent on the product through cross-functional teams. 3) Acquisition, retention, conversion, and engagement are important metrics to track, and performance marketing should be used as a precision tool to optimize these metrics rather than a blunt approach.

1. Turbocharging growth for
early stage startups
Sriram Krishnan
Head of International Growth
Tinder

2. Must have product market fit

3. No growth without retention
& engagement

5. How do you build a
growth oriented org?

6. Doing things that
don’t scale

7. Basically
the hustle

8. Getting people
on your product
one user at a time

9. Your first consumers
are important.
They aren’t your users.
They are your
sellers & advocates

10. Invest in
making them
happy

11. Overnight success
takes months or years

14. Product Hun
Tinder, etc?

15. Have a north star

16. 100k MAU
1 mil hours
200k pictures

17. Cross functional teams
focusing on key metrics

18. Startups don’t die because of
starvation, they die because of
indigestion

19. Acquisition, retention,
conversion, engagement
Depth vs breadth

20. Teams around
metrics, funne

21. Performance
marketing as a
precision tool vs
blunt object

22. Free, freemium, paid-only app?

23. Select your success
metrics carefully

24. CPI vs ROI
LTV / CAC
1,3,5 year
LTV
CPI vs LTR
VCR
CPC
CTR
Brand lift
surveys

25. Identify
arbitrage
opportunities

26. Fb, Snap, SEM
Digital, etc

27. “If you build it,
they will come”

28. Not everyone is
PR savvy

29. First day pop
is boring &
expected

30. How do you
sustain interest
& momentum?

31. Day 1 Week 1 Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4
200 users 2,800 users 16,200 users
750 users 7,900 users 76,000 users
Month 6Month 5
Press
Coverage
620,000 users 890,000 users

32. Bottom up and top
down drive echo-
chamber effect
Diversify your list of
spokespersons
Stories based on
advisory/investor
base, metrics/
milestones, product
releases/launches,
individual brilliance,
partnerships etc
Data/content for
press pitches
Nurture
relationships with
journalists

33. Thought
leadership e

34. Distribution Brand vs

35. Distribution
Legacy vs internet
Legacy: >20-50% of national
population
Drive downloads, purchases
or sales…
…But developing for legacy
partners can suck the life
out of your early stage
company

36. Telcos; Credit card plans; retail
outlets; Insurance; FMCG
Pros: Access to large customer
base; potential marketing
commitment from partner
Cons: Long lead time; distraction;
different product for partners’
various product or distribution
levels
Eg: Spotify x telco

37. Web partnerships allow
you to piggyback of
established web
companies through
value exchange or
barter deals

38. Brand partnerships can
add legitimacy and
credibility
May not directly
contribute to short term
growth but can help build
awareness which can
drive long term growth

40. Influencer
marketing

41. Standing on the shoulder of giants

42. Youtube, Facebook,
Twitter etc

45. Beauty brand
etc

46. How do you
build thought
leadership?

48. Types of
content,
distribuBon

49. mobilegrowthstack.com

50. Closing
thoughts