This post is derived from Michael Seibel, Partner at Y Combinator talk in 2014 at Startup Istanbul.
So how do you achieve growth? I would say that for the typical Silicon Valley investor this is the number one metric for determining whether you're going to raise money. It's not team, it's not past experience, it's not fancy investors. its growth. So typically you're gonna go one of three ways. One you can experiment with ads I tend to like this strategy the least. The second if you are B2B you really want to focus on reference customers. The customers who you can provide amazing service to and who gonna talk to other people in the industry and spread the word about you. The last one if you doing anything related to consumers whether it’s consumer services, social media e.t.c usage should equal sharing. I can't tell you how many founders I talked to who said you know I'm going to make my thing go viral. Well if you wanna make your thing go viral it doesn't mean just adding a share button. The very fact that people are using your product has to create some type of share that has to be built in from day one. And so don't think of sharing as an extra activity or a side activity. Think of it as 100 percent part of using your product. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9_fQwFbBUQ]]>