60 ideas to boost your growth

A motherload of growth inspiration by guest author Ali Abouelatta, creator of the First 1000 newsletter

First1000 - Ali Abouelatta and Lenny Rachitsky

Oct 12

👋 Hey, Lenny here! Welcome to this month’s ✨ free edition ✨ of my weekly newsletter. Each week I humbly tackle reader questions about product, growth, working with humans, and anything else that’s stressing you out at the office.

If you’re not a subscriber, here’s what you missed this month:

(Also, my genius wife’s second book came out today! As one reviewer put it, “it feels like a hug from a friend, with charts!!” You can order it from Amazon, Bookshop, or your local bookstore.)

Q: I’m looking for creative ways to get the word out about my product. Do you have examples of clever growth tactics I can use for inspiration?

In The Racecar Growth Framework, Dan Hockenmaier and I wrote about how it’s helpful to think about your business like a high-performance race car—the same four components that help a car drive faster also help your business grow:

⚙️ The (Growth) Engine: Self-sustaining growth loops that drive most of your growth (e.g. virality, performance marketing, content, sales)
💥 Turbo Boosts: One-off events that accelerate growth temporarily but don’t last (e.g. PR, events, Super Bowl ads)
💧 Lubricants: Optimizations that make the growth engine run more efficiently (e.g. improved customer conversion, a stronger brand, higher customer retention)
⛽ Fuel: The input that your engine requires to run (e.g. capital, content, users)

Your Growth Engines are the most important component to get right long-term (read why in the full post), but when you’re just starting out, Turbo Boosts—one-off events that accelerate growth temporarily—are incredibly valuable. Although they don’t have compounding value, they do bring in users (giving you a chance to learn what’s working), and they often help you kickstart your growth engine.

To inspire your own Turbo Boost experimentation, I’ve pulled in Ali Abouelatta, the author of the excellent First 1000 newsletter, who spends much of his time investigating how today’s largest companies acquired their first 1,000 users. Leveraging all of his past research, Ali has pulled together the motherload of examples, which you’ll find below. I hope you find it as fascinating as I did. Enjoy!

You can find Ali on Twitter, and definitely subscribe to his newsletter: First 1000.

60 ideas to boost your growth

by Ali Abouelatta

Naval @naval

It's never been easier to start a company. It's never been harder to build one.

With so many businesses being created every year, standing out is only getting harder. Case in point—since Naval wrote the above tweet, the number of new business applications in the U.S. has almost doubled, from 2.58 million in 2012 to 4.35 million in 2020.

To get people’s attention, you need to do something special. Something remarkable. And that’s where today’s post comes in. I’ve collected 60 examples of successful Turbo Boosts—one-off events that temporarily accelerate growth for companies large and small—to inspire you to come up with something special of your own.

Broadly speaking, there are seven common types of Turbo Boosts—seven strategies to get a burst of attention for your product:

Below, I’ll explore each of these strategies and share examples of how companies have leveraged each one.

1. Create a viral video

A video that tells your story, demos your product, or delights people so much that they can’t help but share it with their friends.

GoldieBlox

GoldieBlox’s launch video highlights its mission of making STEM toys more inclusive. The video received over 3 million views in the first 48 hours.

Distribution: PR (Business Insider, Los Angeles Times, Silicon Valley Business Journal, Time magazine)

Why it worked: Surprise, mystery, and controversy.

Monet

Monet, a dating app where people match based on their drawings, got over a million views on its launch video.

Distribution: TikTok

Why it worked: Personal and different.

Dropbox

Drew Houston released this demo video as part of his YC application for Dropbox. The video received over 500,000 views.

Distribution: Hacker News and Reddit

Why it worked: The product was impressive.

Twitter

This was the first Twitter product demo, back when it was called twttr. The video did not gain significant traction until Twitter resurfaced it in 2010.

Not all Turbo Boosts work :)

Additional examples:

2. Launch a mini-product, or “drop”

Launch a non-core product offering that gets attention, which reflects attention toward your brand and/or core product.

Calm: Do Nothing for 2 Minutes

Donothingfor2minutes.com was the precursor to Calm. Visitors were asked not to move their cursor for two full minutes or the counter started over. The website received over 2 million unique visits and facilitated 100,000+ email captures in 10 days.

Distribution: Hacker News, PR coverage, and social shares (from people who completed the challenge)

Why it worked: Turned a problem (being constantly distracted) into a fun challenge.

Tommee Tippee: Advice Wipes

Tommee Tippee created Advice Wipes, limited-edition baby wipes made from recycled baby books and articles, launched as part of its U.S. expansion plan.

Distribution: PR (ClickZ, Adweek) and mom communities (Scary Mommy, Simply Real Moms)

Why it worked: Highlighted a problem that resonated with its target audience.

“The campaign is based on a poll of 1,000 new moms, which showed that more than half feel entirely overwhelmed by unsolicited parenting advice and opinions.” (source)

Toucan: Own The Word

Toucan teaches people a new language while they’re surfing the internet. The company launched Own The Word, which gave people (or brands) “ownership” of any word for 99 cents a month.

Distribution: Customers and investors tweeting their claimed words

Why it worked: Owning a sought-after word on the platform became a social flex.

MSCHF: Satan Shoes

Satan Shoes are a series of custom Nike Air Max 97 sneakers as a collaboration between Lil Nas X and MSCHF, an art collective.

Distribution: PR (New York Times, NBC, The Verge, CNN, BBC), and Lil Nas X promoting it

Why it worked: A controversy hyped by Lil Nas X and a lawsuit from Nike.

Party Round: Helpful VCs

Party Round created a pixelated NFT collection for some of the most popular VCs.

Distribution: Twitter

Why it worked: Influential VCs tweeting about the project to claim their NFT.

Bad Unicorn: MindF***

MindF*** is a satirical take on meditation apps.

Distribution: Product Hunt

Why it worked: Poked fun at a popular product.

Continue reading online 👉

Stir: Goodbye Mixer

A tool that allowed streamers to easily export their follower list from Mixer, after Microsoft announced it was shutting the service down.

Distribution: Twitter

Why it worked: Solved a real problem for streamers using Mixer.

Codecademy: Code Year challenge

Prior to launching its product, Codecademy released a new year’s challenge called Code Year. The challenge received over 400,000 sign-ups in three months.

Distribution: Influencers, including Mike Bloomberg, Farhad Manjoo, Boris Johnson, and Fred Wilson

Why it worked: Great timing (i.e. new year’s resolutions).

Additional examples:

Stir: Collab Party
PopJam: Sock and Awe
Party Round: The BIGTECH Fellowship
Twitter: NFT Drops
Uber: UberPUPPIES

3. Run an enticing limited-time offer

Running a promotion on your existing product, giving people a reason to pay attention and act.

Mint Mobile: The Bobby Bonilla Plan

Every year on July 1 (until 2035), retired baseball player Bobby Bonilla receives $1.2 million from the New York Mets. Mint Mobile created a limited one-day deal called the Bobby Bonilla Plan as a way to celebrate the occasion.

https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7337bc2b-2e27-41bc-928c-9099b82cb44d_2654x1290.png

Distribution: Ads and PR (Forbes, CNET)

Why it worked: It’s funny.

Coinbase: Dogecoin sweepstakes

Coinbase @coinbase

It’s raining DOGE! Dogecoin is now on Coinbase and we’re giving away $1.2 million in DOGE to celebrate. Opt in and then buy or sell $100 in DOGE on Coinbase by 06/10/2021 for your chance to win. Limit one entry per person. Details here 👇 coinbase.com/sweepstakes/do…

Distribution: Ads

Why it worked: Great timing: the Dogecoin craze 🚀🌜.

Cards Against Humanity: $5 for nothing

For Black Friday, Cards Against Humanity asked users to pay $5 in exchange for nothing.

Distribution: Existing customers

Why it worked: Novel, funny, and unexpected.

Cash App: 99% off everything

Cash App @CashApp

We just dropped a 99% off anywhere Boost. Available to everyone, up to $50, for the next 20 minutes. Go go go. #cashapp99off

Distribution: Social media post

Why it worked: Free money.

Additional examples:

Fast: $5 hoodie
Cards Against Humanity: 99% Sale
Amazon: Prime Day

4. Coordinate an influencer-led promotion

Partner with an influencer to promote your product.

Honk: Influencer Twitter launch

Honk’s coordinated Twitter launch captured a lot of attention in the tech sphere. Over 1 million “honks” were sent the following day.

Norgard @BrianNorgard

.@usehonk is the most exciting messenger released in years. It’s a real-time joy inspiring experience that makes conversations come alive. Happy to have co-lead the investment with @naval. Go @benjitaylor and Team! 2021, the year of consumer.

‎HonkHonk is the new way to make friends and chat in real-time, with messages shown live as you type! Meet new friends who share your interests and see every message typed in real time, with all the typos, awkward pauses, and emotions you’d normally miss. There’s no chat history or send button, so it’s …apps.apple.com

Distribution: Twitter: tech influencers and investors

Why it worked: Hype and FOMO.

Step: Charli D’Amelio

Charli D’Amelio, the #1 followed TikToker, invested and partnered with teen banking app Step.

Distribution: PR (Forbes, Business Insider, NBC, Techcrunch) and TikTok

Why it worked: A lot of media attention because it was Charli’s first startup investment.

Reddit: Paul Graham’s Essay

Reddit got its first 1,000 users when Paul Graham mentioned the platform on his blog.

Distribution: paulgraham.com

Why it worked: People in tech trust Paul Graham.

Spanx: Oprah’s Favorite Things

Oprah chose Spanx as her favorite product of the year (2000).

Distribution: Sending gift baskets to Andre Walker, Oprah’s hairstylist

Why it worked: Oprah!

Additional examples:

Casper: Kylie Jenner
Atoms: Alexis Ohanian
Twitter: Om Malik
Creative Juice: MrBeast

5. Co-marketing

Collaborate with another company to promote your products.

Toucan x Bark

Toucan partnered with Bark on April Fools’ Day to create a (fake) “woof” translator.

Distribution: Collaboration with Bark, which co-marketed the promotion

Why it worked: It’s funny.

MainStreet x Stripe Atlas

Stripe Atlas @atlas

Stripe Atlas founders now have VIP onboarding and a 25% discount for @MainStreet, which helps startups find eligible tax credits (up to $250,000 a year). Get connected with a MainStreet representative for more details: mainstreet.com.

Distribution: Partnership with Stripe Atlas, which both co-marketed

Why it worked: A win-win. Atlas provided additional value to its customers through the 25% discount and MainStreet got access to those customers.

Eight Sleep x IFTTT

Eight Sleep launched a co-marketing campaign with IFTTT following its integration with the service.

IFTTT @IFTTT

@eightsleep is on a mission to make people’s sleep count for more. They launched their smart mattress, with its IFTTT integration, in 2016. Learn how they were immediately able to bring a wider range of possibilities to their customers. ift.tt/2OhHaVy

Distribution: Partnership with IFTTT, which both co-marketed

Why it worked: Integration unlocked additional use cases for both products to highlight and promote.

MicroAcquire x Pipe

MicroAcquire, a marketplace to sell and buy businesses, partnered with Pipe to help buyers fund acquisitions through future recurring revenues.

Andrew Gazdecki @agazdecki

Announcement: @microacquire & @pipe are exclusively partnering to help more startups get acquired. We're allowing buyers & sellers to finance acquisitions almost instantly of all sizes. Today M&A sucks for startups & we’re changing that. Got Russ to chime in. Tres Commas. 🤘

Distribution: Partnership with Pipe, which both co-marketed

Why it worked: An entertaining Cameo, and giving out swag to share the post.

Additional examples:

6. Organize an exciting offline experience

Organize an in-person experience that gets people fired up about your product.

Hinge: Launch Party

Over 2,500 people attended Hinge’s (re)launch party. The following day, the company made more matches than it did throughout its entire history.

Hinge: The Launch Party — Source: Guest of a Guest

Distribution: Email list from an ex-roommate who was plugged into the D.C. social scene, and inviting friends of friends

Why it worked:

“I knew if we wanted something like this to be successful we needed a large, core group of people who are all connected on Facebook and had power as influencers.”
—Justin McLeod

Simulate: Dino Nuggs Hunt

Simulate, the company behind the plant-based “chicken” nuggets Nuggs, hid boxes of limited-edition dinosaur-shaped nuggets all over L.A. and New York and winners received a year’s supply of the product.

Distribution: Billboards and social media

Why it worked: A scavenger hunt is fun.

Snackpass: Events with local college groups

Snackpass hired 60 brand ambassadors and sponsored university-centric events for every new campus launch.

Distribution: Partnering with fraternities, athletic teams, and campus groups

Why it worked: The “cool factor” of those groups reflected on Snackpass being cool.

Snapchat: Spectacles vending machines

Snapchat dropped off strange vending machines at random locations around the U.S. with a limited number of Spectacles.

Distribution: PR (New York Times, Mashable, Business Insider, BuzzFeed)

Why it worked: Hype and FOMO.

Additional examples:

Glossier: Summer Fridays Pop-Up
Refinery29: 29Rooms
The Hustle: Hustle Con

7. Pick a fight

Take a stand against a big company or competitor, which creates controversy and attention.

Hey: Fight with Apple

DHH @dhh

Wow. I'm literally stunned. Apple just doubled down on their rejection of HEY's ability to provide bug fixes and new features, unless we submit to their outrageous demand of 15-30% of our revenue. Even worse: We're told that unless we comply, they'll REMOVE THE APP.

Distribution: Twitter (@DHH, 400K+ followers) and PR (The Verge, Protocol, AppleInsider, TechCrunch)

Why it worked: Created a controversy that many agreed with.

Salesforce: Fight with Siebel Systems

Marc Benioff created a fake protest in front of the Siebel Systems conference (a competitor at the time).

Distribution: Local media

Why it worked: Local media stations thought it was a real protest.

Fanhouse: Fight with Apple

❀ jasmine ❀ @jasminericegirl

#fuckapple, a thread I cofounded @fanhouseapp 8 months ago to empower creators to monetize their content. We pay creators 90% of earnings. Now, Apple is threatening to remove Fanhouse from the app store unless we give them 30% of creator earnings. This is theft and exploitation.

Distribution: Twitter

Why it worked: Created a controversy, David vs. Goliath style.

WePay: Fight with PayPal

WePay’s sign-ups increased by 300% when it dropped a block of ice with the message “PayPal freezes your accounts” during the PayPal annual developer conference.

Distribution: PR (TechCrunch)

Why it worked: The media was interested in PayPal’s account freezing practices.

DoNotPay: Fight with Robinhood

Joshua Browder @jbrowder1

After receiving hundreds of messages and Tweets about this issue, we have added the ability to join the @robinhood class action to @DoNotPayLaw. From 12PM today PT, you can enroll and support the cause via our class actions product!

Distribution: PR (CNBC, Vice, Fortune, New York Times, Yahoo News, etc.)

Why it worked: Robinhood suspending/limiting the trading of GameStop and other meme stocks.

Additional examples:

Epic: Fight with Apple
Netscape: Fight with Microsoft
Six4Three: Fight with Facebook
Egnyte: Fight with Box

In closing

I hope one or more of these examples inspires you to come up with a clever way to get the word out about your own product. But remember, although Turbo Boosts can be a powerful tool to stimulate growth, do not fall into the trap of over-relying on them, because:

They are an unreliable source of growth.
They are neither scalable nor repeatable.
Getting a Turbo Boost to work doesn’t mean you have product-market fit, and it won’t really help you find it.

At the same time, if you look at the history of successful companies, nearly 100% of them invested in Turbo Boosts, and continue to do so. So if you are experimenting with Turbo Boosts, you’re in good company. Good luck 🚀

Thanks, Ali! Ali will soon be graduating from Cornell and will be looking for a PM role. If you’d like to chat with him, reach out on Twitter. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to his newsletter, First 1000.