Goodreads is the largest website on earth for all things books. With over 45 million registered readers who review millions of books, Goodreads grew at an astonishing clip thanks to viral loops. At Hustle Con, Chandler will talk about the process he uses to boost his company’s extreme growth.

1. How I Built an
Audience of 50
Million Members by
Solving a Problem
Otis Chandler
CO-FOUNDER + CEO, GOODREADS

2. @otown #hustlecon
Goodreads today
50 million members
Top 60 U.S. website
400 million monthly PVs
70% female audience

3. #hustlecon
My #1 secret of success
Solve a problem that people have
@otown

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Goodreads mission
To help readers find and share
books they love
@otown

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The most successful companies are
mission driven
Gives you a lens for where to focus
and where not to focus.
@otown

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“We like mission-driven people”
@otown
First thing Jeff Bezos said to me

7. Some of the Amazon Family of companies
#hustlecon
#hustlecon@otown

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Solving a problem is also Jeff Bezos’ top
leadership secret, aka. customer obsession
“If you’re customer-focused,
you’re always waking up
wondering, how can we make
that customer say, wow? We
want to impress our customers–
we want them to say, wow.”
@otown

9. #hustlecon@otown
The story of
Goodreads

10. #hustlecon@otown

11. Turns out… lots of people had this problem!
#hustlecon@otown

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90% of content is produced by 10% of members
@otown
Nail product/market fit for your power users–
they’ll spread the word

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I have a theory about product development
When there is a problem a LOT of people
have, you will have SMALL numbers of
people going out of their way to solve it
using manual or hacked-together tools.
@otown

14. #hustlecon@otown
A manual solution to buying & selling goods &
services in a community

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Problem: keep track of all the books I’ve read
@otown

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To-read lists!
@otown

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Give people a better tool and many
more people will use it

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If you see something working,
double down on it
@otown

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If you solve a problem, Google will reward you
@otown
For a long tail content site, noindex & nofollow are your friend

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Give people tools to let them share
& spread the word

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Address book importers
@otown

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Viral loops
@otown
Variables: invites per user, conversion rate, time to acquisition
INVITE à ACQUIRE à INVITE

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Facebook open graph
@otown

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Viral acquisition loops
@otown
Need a dedicated growth team
SHARE à ACQUIRE à SHARE

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We kept solving problems & growing –
gave us a strong BATNA

26. #hustlecon@otown

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Focusing on a problem led us to Amazon
Being able to easily share
what you are reading.
@otown

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Kindle launched in 2007 and took
reading digital
40% of books are bought online today*
*From a Neilson Books & Consumers survey, March 2015

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Two secrets of acquisitions
@otown
1. People, strategy, price
2. Companies are bought,
not sold

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We are the social network of Kindle
@otown

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My tenets for building a company
@otown
1. Solve a problem! Work backwards from
solving a problem that people have.
2. Look for how people are solving it
manually and see how you can improve
that with technology.
3. Be mission driven. Keeps you focused,
attracts the right people.

32. Goodreads.com
Otis Chandler
CO-FOUNDER + CEO
#hustlecon@amandabradford