This step-by-step guide shows you the right way to grow your user base

So, you really thought there was a guaranteed way to grow a startup by 10 or more times? If there was and I knew about it, I would have been a billionaire, as I would have known the formula behind an elixir.

Lesson 1: There are no shortcuts in life.

Don’t start making judgments yet, though. I’ll try to do justice to what I committed and help you understand what growth really is and why a lot of startups get stuck at ~10,000 downloads and end up using some shady methods to justify the growth they wish to achieve and eventually fool themselves.

Let’s start with some data points.

Airbnb growth curve.

Between 2010 and 2011, Airbnb saw hardly any growth. The important thing to note here is that for one entire year they were struggling to find the right product-market fit, experimenting with and simultaneously failing at a lot of things.

Lesson 2: Patience is super important for growth.

What’s growth?

Paul Graham scientifically claimed that a business viability is determined if the growth of a business is 5 to 7 percent per week. An exceptional growth rate is 10 percent per week.

In the startup world, it’s super important to realize that growth is as essential to life as oxygen. It’s very important to set the right growth goals and equally important to meet those for you to determine your company’s life.

Falling under the vicious circle of numbers

After setting your company growth goals, have the right team to execute it. Everything is set, you just need to execute the plan and boom!

But does it work like that?

I’ve seen a lot of companies having mammoth mismatches in management where leaders themselves fall into the trap of golden numbers (top-line metrics).

• Monthly business goal: US$2xxxxx
• 20th day of the month status: US$1xx2xx
• Marketing budget left: US$xxxx
• Campaign: discounts and offers (incurring a total loss to the company)
• False truth: happy manager, happy CEO, and happy employees

Lesson 3: Follow the true north star metrics—transparency and honesty.

Hooray!

Lesson 4: Set the right testing environment for your company.

Lesson 5: There’s always an audience looking for real value.

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