Every startup faces a few key roadblocks that prevent you from moving forward. Not only will you learn how to grow past each roadblock, you'll also see the same process that KISSmetrics uses to increase conversions, discover new channels of growth, and accelerate acquisition at every step. You don’t need any data or traffic either, you can do it as early as day 1.

1. Unlocking the 4 Gateways of
Growth
Lars Lofgren

2. Hit me up
@larslofgren

3. We’ll cover…
1 4 gateways and the metrics for each
2 How to go hunting for big wins
3 Where to find ideas for testing
#KISSwebinar

4. I’m not going to spend any
time on Google Analytics.

5. How healthy is this business?

6. Gateway
Metrics

7. Use metrics that measure
your biggest problem.
Ignore the rest.

8. When picking metrics, always ask yourself:
What’s my biggest constraint right
now and which metric will tell me if
I’m making progress?

9. Gateway #1: Is your idea any good?

10. Your main metric:
Get someone to pay or use your
product regularly.

11. Bad metrics for this gateway:
1 Asking people if they’ll pay
2 AdWords clicks
3 Beta or waiting list signups
4 Traffic

12. Gateway #2: Is your product good enough?

13. Your main metric:
Ask 500 users the Product/Market
Fit Question

14. What is the P/M Fit Question?
How would you feel if you could no
longer use [your product]?
1 Very disappointed
2 Somewhat disappointed
3 Not disappointed (it isn’t really that useful)

15. Your goal for the P/M Fit Question:
At least 40% of users should say
“Very disappointed.”
*Sean Ellis and Hiten Shah get credit for this one.

16. How do you get to the first 500 users/customers?
Hustle.

17. The P/M Fit Question isn’t
perfect, verify with a
retention metric.

18. Gateway #3: Can you grow?

19. Pick just one channel to start
Work on your channel for at least 3
months. Assume it’ll work and get
the resources needed to execute.

20. Your main metrics:
Your main business metric and
acquisition funnel.

21. Main business metrics:
1 SaaS: Monthly Recurring Revenue
2 Ecommerce: Monthly Revenue
3 Consumer Tech: Monthly Active Users

22. Start tracking your acquisition funnel here

23. Gateway #4: Do you have a stable model?

24. Your main metrics:
Depends entirely on what business
model you have.

25. The SaaS Model
1 LTV is at least 3x acquisition cost
2 Recover acquisition cost within 12 months
3 Get monthly churn below 2%

26. The Ecommerce Model
1
2
3
It’s all about profit margin.

27. The Consumer Tech Model
1 Virality > 1
2 Usage 3 out of 7 days
3 30% of users active day a"er signup
4 Organic growth of 100s signups/day.
5 Clear path to 100,000+ users
*Andrew Chen’s “Zero to Product/Market Fit”

28. Find someone in your
industry that knows the
key benchmarks.

29. Start with constraints,
hack together what you
need to measure them.

30. Big Win
Hunting

31. A/B tests don’t ma#er, they come later

32. Big Win Hunting
1 Get qualitative insights for hypothesis
2 Launch, do it LIVE
3 Use the eyeball test
#KISSwebinar

33. 1. Get qualitative insights
So we’re on a KISSmetrics sales call…

34. 2. Launch, do it LIVE
1. New email 2. New deck

35. 3. The eyeball test

36. Finding
Ideas to Test

37. Whenever you’re not sure
what to test, get
qualitative data.

38. 5 ways to get qualitative insights
1 Customer Development
2 Surveys
3 Feedback Forms
4 Customer Analytics
5 Usability Tests

39. 1. Your customers want to help you, go talk to 20 of them

40. How to structure your interviews:
1 Brief overview of who they are
2 Deep dive into their problems
3 Present solution for feedback
#KISSwebinar

41. 2. Start running surveys with these rules:
1 Expect a 10% response rate
2 Only ask questions that you need
3 Don’t exceed 10 questions
#KISSwebinar
4 Start with open response
5 Categorize responses to see trends

42. Use Qualaroo surveys to target steps in funnel
#KISSwebinar

43. 3. Our feedback form at KISSmetrics:

44. 4. Pull user activity logs on two groups

45. Find 20 of each:
1 Ideal customers
2 Customers that started but le"
How are these two groups different?

46. 5. Start doing usability tests

47. Great for general UX, not
good for market-specific
insights.

48. Big Win Hunting Recap
1 Get qualitative insights for hypothesis
2 Launch, do it LIVE
3 Use the eyeball test
#KISSwebinar
Run through this cycle at each
gateway until you get past it.

49. Q&A Time!
Lars Lofgren
@larslofgren
llofgren@kissmetrics.com