Scaling your startup after product-market fit. As Head of Marketing for Blueberry Markets, I share my 5-step growth strategy framework & a 70% referral program success story.

Innovation, Experimentation, Data-driven, Acquisition, Retention, Conversion, Optimization, Virality, A/B testing, Funnel, User Journey, Scalability, Metrics, Automation, Hacks

Hey everyone, it's awesome to be here with you today. I'm Govinda Pathak, a growth and marketing professional, serial entrepreneur, currently growing and scaling up a CFD FinTech startup called Bluberry Markets. Let's dive into one of the most exciting and challenging phases of a startup's journey, figuring out how to grow after you've nailed that product market fit. So, you've got a product that people love? Congrats. But now what? How do you take it to the next level and scale up? I have a 5-step process that has worked for me and then a personal experience for you. Theory first. The step one is to get to know your users inside out. Who are they? What's clicking with them? Why did they choose your product over others? Dig into the data with tools like Google Analytics or Mixpanel, Amplitude, and so many others. Talk to your customers directly. Their feedback is like gold. This helps you understand what's working with and what might need a tweak. Step two. Set clear and measurable goals. Are you looking to boost your user attention, reduce churn, or get more daily active users? Make sure these goals are specific and measurable. Also, keep them simple. Sometimes measuring small goals that seem obvious can be very complicated. Aim for what clearly impacts your bottom line or your not-star. Step three. This is the fun part. Experiment like crazy. This is where growth hacking really shines. Test out different channels and strategies to see what sticks. Testing is an art. It isn't about throwing money at 20 channels. It is about creating hypotheses and then devising an experiment to validate or invalidate all of them. If you are a B2B company, maybe content marketing and LinkedIn ads are your jam, but a B2C, influencer, and partnerships might work better. Use A-B testing for everything from email campaigns to landing pages. The key here is to iterate quickly. Plan, test, analyze, tweak. Step four. Double down on what works. If referrals are driving new users, make it super easy for people to refer your product. Automate the process and offer great incentives. Focus only on channels that are scalable. Remember, you don't always need to spend big bucks. Some of the most effective techniques can be pretty budget-friendly. Step five. Measure, optimize, repeat. Finally, keep measuring and optimizing. Growth hacking is all about rapid iteration and continuous improvement. Use data to refine your approach. Keep what works, fine-tune the promising stuff, and ditch what doesn't. Stay flexible and be ready to pivot when necessary. Now time for my personal experience and how I crack growth for my company. Well, reference was a big part of how our customers found our product. It was pretty obvious that it had to be the big one. The challenge was about finding how to do it right. I found all the unknown elements that tech had to develop. What is the incentive that would drive growth? When is the right time to introduce this? Where on the dashboard should we place it? How often we should give this incentive? What is too much? What is too less? To answer all these questions, I did a series of experiments. Each experiment to answer every aspect of this. The result, we created a referral program that was able to bring over 70% of all new customer acquisitions via referrals at one-tenth the price of a performance market year customer. Plus, it was scalable. Once in six months, we could offer double referral incentives and we would get hundreds of extra referrals that month. This is my story of one channel. There are more such stories about other channels coming soon. Thank you for hanging out with me today. I can't wait to see how you guys take your startups to the next level with these tips. Thank you.

3. Content is king! My cover connected me with music legend Diane Warren & my brand landed me in Rolling Stone. Here is how strategic social media content can propel your brand. A defining moment as cofounder in my brand agency sparked a passion to help others navigate the complexities of co-founding. Now I coach cofounders to build successful partnerships To grow a big business, place small little bets. Khan explains here how his tutoring hobby grew into something that has changed the face of education on an unprecedented scale. Cooking brings people together: My journey building Ladle Cooking and discovering the inflection point between my professional path and personal fulfillment. Externally we bravely advocate and show courage, however, when it comes to self care....we will downplay ourselves. This episode aims to change that! Take a listen! The reason to take the plunge into a new venture is also what gets you through the struggles of the first year. Here’s my secret to both as a founder in an uncharted industry. As founders we are faced with challenges every day, every minute. We need to overcome them, while enjoying the journey. A short update for Coach Chris. Dealing with life as a leader, parent, or employee. After passing my 4 year milestone marker of working with founders and leaders, I share my 3 biggest takeaways where improvement is needed. 1. My personal brand allowed me to amass over 500K followers, achieve 15M+ video views and be featured in Rolling Stone twice. I share why personal branding is key for your business! This is my journey from a 13 year professional baseball career to a co-founder of a company designed to develop and place ex athletes into the medical device industry The importance of clarity and defining desired outcomes for founders and business leaders. From an international student to a global leader, from career at Google UK to TikTok in China, from an introvert to a TEDx speaker, welcome to my life outside the comfort zone. Leadership starts with self care. You can't care for others if you're neglecting yourself. This episode give you simple ways to care for yourself and be a great leader. PART 1 Addressing the Silence: Understanding and Overcoming Client Ghosting. There are many creative tools to think differently, but none is more counter-intuitive than “wrong thinking,” also called reverse thinking by Harvard Business Review. Building a start-up and finding co-founders in a field that isn’t your core competency. Consistency is key for brand awareness, brand growth, and brand reputation. It's not as hard as some make it out to be. Here's a few tips to help you be more consistent. April Dunford, world-leading expert on positioning for B2B tech companies, explains why the Hero's Journey framework works for traditional storytelling, but not for B2B sales. I'm giving you a key to the door of your future will you lock the door or open it?