Verna: Modern software is judged by emotional resonance over core functionality
Elena Verna · Elena Verna: How Lovable Launches Product & Hacks Social to Go Viral · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Mar 14, 2026 · at 2:31
Elena Verna is Head of Growth at Lovable. She discusses how AI raises the minimum standard for software, making emotional connection and personality key to growth.
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“It's no longer about the software functionality that you're trying to grow. You're really trying to create what I call minimum lovable product out of every single little thing that you touch because software is now almost being judged by the emotion that it can invoke with a human as opposed to just core basic functionality that it can do.”
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“For any founder in the first year, investing in paid as the means of growth is a death trap.”
Verna: Startups under five years old cannot accurately calculate their LTV
“Unless you've been in the business for five years plus, You do not know your LTV. Period.”
Verna: Paid marketing is the most expensive and defenseless growth path
“Paid marketing to me is Is a cheap way out, and it's not competitively defensible. I should say cheap. It's actually the most expensive way out, and it's not competitively defensible at all, and it's not sustainable.”
Verna: Meta ads deliver very little incremental growth for startups
“Meta... Just very little incrementality. Just a bunch of pass through views that don't materialize into anything.”