StartUp Founders: Delayed Churn

Dear Reader,

You heard Product Led Growth (PLG) on a podcast and now it’s your go-to-market strategy? Right? PLG is deceptive; it’s delayed churn, unless you focus on Product-Led Retention (PLR). (𝕏)

XXX-Led Growth. Whether Product-Led, Sales-Led, Community-Led, or whatevs, just means your primary growth engine is driven by that function. But a growth motion without retention is like building sandcastles on the beach – epic, awesome, but gone by morning.

TL;DR XXX-Led Growth isn’t a strategy, it’s a tactic. You need them all, and each must be paired with retention. Stop thinking in silos. (Workbook)

LAST WEEKS FRAMEWORK:

4.4 Chasing Product Market Fit: Let It Find You (Join Convo)

LETS GET INTO IT:

PLG is the most famous of the family, the go-to-market idea where the product drives customer acquisition, conversion, and expansion. It’s frictionless entry, freemium, viral loops, self-serve onboarding. Think Slack or Dropbox, where users get hooked fast and incentivized to invite others.

Product-Led Retention is what gets them to stay; Personalized onboarding, intelligent nudges to drive feature adoption, proactive customer success outreach but most of all, for PLG, its using the PRODUCT insights to drive roadmap.

PLG sounds fab: low CAC, viral growth, frictionless onboarding. But it just does not work in a silo and if they don’t stay, its all for nothing.

You need ALL the LG motions. They’re not mutually exclusive:

• Product-Led Attracts, Retention Keeps.
• Sales-Led Closes, Retention Expands.
• Community-Led Fosters, Retention Nurtures.
• Marketing-Led Builds, Retention Engages.
• Channel-Led Expands, Retention Maximizes.
• Customer-Led Creates, Retention Amplifies.
• Content-Led Educates, Retention Inspires.
• Data-Led Drives, Retention Optimizes.
• Engineering-Led Fuels, Retention Delights.
• Virality-Led Ignites, Retention Sustains.
• Ecosystem-Led Fosters, Retention Strengthens.
• API-Led Enables, Retention Integrates.

Three Truths:

The Funnel is King: Awareness, acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, referral – your growth “strategy” needs to include the entire customer journey.

Growth Without Retention = Expensive Failure
You’re not clever for acquiring users if they leave. Every growth motion needs a retention counterpart.

Motions vs. Strategies: A motion is how you move. A strategy is your destination and why you’re going there. XXX-LG might get users in, but without a strategy, you’re just delaying churn (hoping to raise money before anyone notices?).

Which leads to how you’re probably executing now:

• One-Led Pony: Relying on one motion to solve everything.
• Persona Blindness: Treating all users and buyers the same.
• Funnel Vision: Focusing only on acquisition.
• Vanity Metrics: Downloads don’t equal engaged users.

Product-Led Growth aka Delayed Churn

What Now?

I know you’re under pressure to grow, show traction, justify that last (or next) funding round. The growth at all costs mentality is tough to ignore.

Unsustainable growth is worse than no growth at all. It’s a lesson most learn the hard way. You think “once we have the users, we’ll figure it out.” “Volume hides all sins.” Rarely true.

Think Clubhouse; Virality-Led and Exclusivity-Led through the roof… Retention? Non-existent. And now? Dead.

Forget the buzzwords…. they’re just motions.

• Brainstorm ALL the Motions: List every possible growth motion and its applicability to your business. Don’t hold back, sometimes crazy ideas spark brilliance.
  
• Build Your Playbook:
  • Envision Execution: How would you bring this to life in your startup? Specific tactics, not just theory.
  • Ruthlessly Assess: Is it relevant to your business right now? Could it be a major growth driver eventually?
• Define Retention from Day One:
  • For EACH motion, even if it’s hypothetical, sketch out a retention plan. How will you turn users into USERS?
• Connect the Dots:
  • How could these motions work together? Could one fuel another? Where are the potential conflicts? Sketch it out.
• Prioritize and Experiment:
  • Prioritize the top 2-3 motions….
  • Do it! Only one way to see what works….

Build a growth strategy that lasts. Where growth is predictable, sustainable and real. It starts by building a product that people truly love and can’t live without.

As always, if I can be of service, feel free to grab time.

— James

(LinkedIn | Tiktok | Twitter)