Ellis: Referral programs cannot fix poor product value or experience
Sean Ellis · 646: He Coined Term "Growth Hacking" After DropBox, EventBrite, LogMeIn Work, Now Launching Book "Hacking Growth" with Sean Ellis · May 1, 2017 · at 5:00
Sean Ellis, author of 'Hacking Growth,' advises founders on the prerequisites for viral growth engines.
0:00 / 0:07exact quote · 7.9s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“You can't bandaid kind of a crappy product experience and a crappy product value with a referral program, for example.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Sean Ellis
Ellis: Growth hacking is rapid testing, not creative slam dunks
“Most things that I think of don't work. That's the reality. And that growth hacking is really more about testing a bunch of stuff and doubling down when something works. And so it's more about kind of just that, that rapid testing process.”
Ellis: Dropbox was the fastest SaaS business to hit $1B ARR
“They're the fastest company, fastest SaaS business to ever get to the one billion dollar revenue run rate”
Ellis: Viral growth is unsustainable without strong foundational product value
“If you don't have a lot of value at the foundation of that growth, it's not very sustainable.”
Ellis: Dropbox had strong referrals before launching its referral program
“Referrals were strong before the referral program went in place. People love the product. We're spreading the word about the product.”
Ellis: Eventbrite relied on inherent product virality rather than referral incentives
“Eventbrite actually did not have an incentive. Eventbrite's just a natural, a really natural kind of viral product in itself, that an event organizer sets up an event among their attendees at that event, who then come through the system and buy tickets and hav…”