Insight certainty 3/5 debate potential 3/5

Founders often resist the right growth lever because they dislike it

Matt Lerner · How to find & pull startup growth levers | Matt Lerner (Founder of SYSTM, Author of Growth Levers) · Sep 26, 2024 · at 43:44

Matt Lerner, founder of SYSTM, discusses common psychological biases and mental resistance founders face when trying to unlock growth.

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“When you find you probably already have the right answer and you probably just don't like it. So the reason you're not growing is because you're missing some important piece of information about the business model, about the market, about your customers. When you find that information, you're going to grow faster. But when you find it, whatever that lever is, it looks like a lot of times you're going to find it distasteful because if you've been doing this already for two years, you probably thought of all these ideas.”

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