How to find and pull startup growth levers | Matt Lerner (Founder and CEO at SYSTM, Author of Growth Levers)
Matt Lerner is the Founder and CEO at SYSTM, a startup coaching consultancy that helps high-potential companies grow their business. Matt also authored the book “Growth Levers”, which shares his framework that's helped over 200 seed-stage startups grow as much as 100x. Previously, Matt was on the early growth team at PayPal, a partner at 500 Startups, and a guest lecturer at Stanford Business School. - In today’s episode, we discuss: Understanding the key drivers of startup success Applying the Growth Lever framework Several case studies Customer-centric growth tactics Adapting growth levers for different business models - Referenced: Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/ Bold Commerce: https://boldcommerce.com/ Calm: https://www.calm.com/ Caribou: https://www.usecaribou.com/ eBay: https://www.ebay.com/ FATMAP: https://fatmap.com/ Growth Levers and How to Find Them: https://www.systm.co/growth-levers-matt-lerner-book PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ Peter Karpas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterkarpas/ Popsa: https://popsa.com/ Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/ Sonic Jobs: https://www.sonicjobs.com/ SYSTM: https://www.systm.co/ - Where to find Matt Lerner: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewlerner/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/matthlerner - Where to find Brett Berson: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson - Where to find First Round Capital: Website: https://firstround.com/ First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast - Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (03:11) The hidden truth about startup success (05:10) Popsa's journey: A case study in growth (07:31) Breaking down the growth lever framework (11:30) Understanding the customer's journey (14:14) The art of customer interviews (18:07) Unlocking growth through customer insights (24:23) The triple threat: Founder failure modes (27:32) The power of founder-led growth strategies (32:42) Unlocking growth bottlenecks (36:40) Timing and implementation of growth strategies (39:43) Founder red flags (41:32) Crafting effective growth experiments (43:14) Why customer mindset is the ultimate growth driver (46:19) The power law of business (48:59) Why startups don’t need paid marketing (50:47) Growth levers for sales-driven companies (53:43) Matt's own application of growth principles (55:39) Growth levers in B2B sales (57:05) Finding customer "locksmith moments" (64:08) The mentor who shaped Matt's thinking