Growth Levers and How to Find Them

by Matthew Lerner

"What every founder needs to know about marketing - read this before you hire a Head of Growth."
- Sean Ellis, Author, Hacking Growth

Great startups don't waste time on small stuff. If you study the early days of any great startup, you’ll see that 90% of their growth came from 10% of the stuff they tried. But most needed years of experimentation to find their growth levers. This book aims to shortcut that process.

Generic tactics like paid ads, SEO and referral programs will only get you so far. Growth levers are things like the professional photographs that made tens of thousands of customers trust AirBnb when they otherwise wouldn’t—a crucial move that unlocked explosive growth. They are unique to each startup; they’re seldom obvious. They come from specific unexpected customer insights, and cut across organizational functions.

In this book you’ll get a process to find your big growth

Map your growth model to find points of leverage where you can focus for the greatest impactUncover your customers' unconscious biases and triggersFind your prospects at their moment of highest needDiscover the exact words to explain your value clearly to customersRun experiments and use data to find the most impactful workRun growth sprints to push the pace and quality of learning and executionShift the team from perfectionism to a scrappy bold mindsetMatt Lerner and his team have helped over 200 startups find their big growth levers as the founder of SYSTM. Previously, he was on the early growth team at PayPal, a partner at a Silicon Valley VC fund, and a past guest lecturer at Stanford Business School.

This book shares the framework that Matt and his team have used to help over 200 seed-stage startups grow as much as 100X. It’s packed with examples and clear, step-by-step instructions.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Startup, Leadership, Buisness, Entrepreneurship

119 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 18, 2024

Reviews

[Gulnur · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read practical handbook for aspiring start-up founders

As a huge fan of Matt's Newsletter and Blog, I was eagerly awaiting the compilation of his invaluable insights into a book, and "Growth Levers" didn't disappoint.

I have been navigating the challenging journey of a start-up co-founder for the last 6 months. The Growth Levers addressed precisely the questions that had been lingering in my mind. In just three evenings, the book provided me with a newfound clarity on my start-up path, offering practical advice and actionable strategies that I could immediately apply to my venture.


I highly recommend getting a copy for your business partner or the entire team; consider it an investment in their continuous learning and the growth of your start-up.

[Aliona Vozna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Distilled and well-structured, this book covers the essential growth basics you need when running a startup.

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is packed with actionable insights that are immediately useful for anyone working in a startup or a growth-focused role. I picked up this book just as I was starting to drive the PLG part of our business at a startup, and it made a big impact on my approach.

What stood out most to me were the ideas of adopting a discovery mindset, embracing the unknown, and making experimentation a core part of the process. Matt Lerner emphasizes the importance of focusing on the customer journey and understanding their needs, which resonated deeply with me. I also found the concept of growth sprints and iteratively trying things out practical and useful.

A key takeaway for me was the importance of identifying a growth lever, specific actions or strategies that can make an outsized impact on the growth of a business. The author highlights how finding and prioritizing these levers can change the trajectory of a company. I also appreciated how I could apply the learning directly to my work as I was reading the book, making it feel immediately relevant and valuable.

This is the kind of book that not only teaches but also inspires you to rethink how you tackle growth challenges. For those who enjoy the book, Matt Lerner also has a newsletter that delivers insightful nuggets weekly, making it a great ongoing resource for growth-minded product managers and entrepreneurs.

[Alexandru Anghel · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a startup founder, I found the book to be amazing value for the time it requires from you and it activated a high degree of desire to take action and implement what Matt is trying to teach.

3 main reasons I loved this book:
- the lessons are practical, to the point and backed by examples; way too many business books take a long time to get to the point and leave me wishing that I actually understood how to take action. This book is almost like a manual
- the book is short - maybe not directly a positive, but I find that the book uses the perfect number of words to deliver each lesson. I did not find any section that I imagined could have been longer or more detailed, or on the flip side, too long and boring
- the book dishes hard truths; if you're an entrepreneur, at least some of the "how not to do it" will hit home; as painful as it is to admit I understand that I'm doing something wrong and that the road to improve is long and filled up with hard conversations, I'm grateful to learn.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matt clearly and concisely outlines a process for teams to identify and test their growth levers quickly. The examples illustrate the point with no extra bragging or fluff. Teams can be successful using this methodology and with practice, patience, and the Discovery Mindset.

That is the hardest part- getting a team and company leadership to move to a Discovery Mindset. Once “I don’t know; Let’s test it out!” becomes the norm, teams will be able to find and use their growth levers to reach success.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I’d read this (had it existed) before I took my first job at a tech startup. It’s a great intro to a way of thinking that supports success. I bought it for Kindle, but now I think I’ll get the print book for easier perusal when I want to look at the JTBD interview framework and experimentation guidelines again! Lots of good stuff packed in here.

[Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Right to the point, well structured and easy to follow.

Matthew really knows how to do his craft and explains it in a good way that's easy to understand and gives you the right tools to do it. Unlike other books this one doesn't give you the "right" answers but asks the right questions.

If you're running a startup or want to really know your customers, this are the basis.

[Miroslav Gospodinov · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the focus on growth and practical tips. I think I have read over 5+ books speaking about Airbnb growth and how they start. Would love to learn about more unique stories and more detailed research of startups in future editions.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snack-size (maybe two hours) read on the basics of what metrics matter when you're running a startup (also applicable to trans building new features at larger companies). Don't run a startup without this knowledge. (Seems basic though, not sure anyone _would_ run a startup without these metrics).

[Francisco Pérez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book with very distilled value.

Takes learnings I read from many Reforge programs as well. I recommend it to any startup founder stuck without substancial growth for a sustained period.

[Mike F · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good playbooks but lacked examples

Was hoping for atleast 4 examples of full articulated growth formula and how they were designed. After compile my notes I’ll re-review in week.

[Nathan Snelgrove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short read, functional, with clear and actionable tasks to help your own business grow. Some of these ideas are standard practices wrapped up in new words, which is enough to make my head spin, but I generally like this approach and I don't think I've ever seen it broken down so concisely.

[Alan Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for startup founders and anyone who is interested in growth

Headline says it all although I’d also recommend signing up for the author’s 2 minute read newsletter service at systm.co.

[Maja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly interesting, definitely more than I expected. I listened to this as an audiobook, and it was honestly a pleasant listen and gave me some questions/ideas for my job

[Harsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite reads this year (so far)

[Aviva Rosman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good to have the book to refer to but it's basically a well-packaged blog post

[Mathias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kanske inte riktigt min typ av bok just i det stadiet jag är nu. Men jag ska ta med mig om hur man ska prioritera costumera journey och att profit is our costumers being happy.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a book that is simple and straight to the point with lots of actionables and examples of other biz for context. Loved it one off my top biz books for the year.

[Horia Stupu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well structured & a must for fresh entrepreneurs. In my case, I already read these ideas several times before and applied most of them in my business, hence the 4 stars.

[Ria Conley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very clear and executable book. Author doesn’t go into details of some examples (research, KPI’s, onboarding, etc) but he’s honest about that, and you can find those covered in other books.
I will say it’s not worth the cost for the physical book because it’s poorly made (a first for me).