There have been many great companies and founders, but not many have captured the imagination of the world like Steve Jobs. The Steve Jobs approach to product management was one of the reasons why Apple went on to produce blockbuster products one after the other & became the most valuable company on the planet. Jobs was obsessive about quality, excellence and minimalism. He had the instinct of an artist, creativity of an inventor and inspired men to build products that ruled the world.

Here’s the Steve Jobs approach to product management:

1. Minimalist

Focus was the mantra that ruled the life of Steve Jobs. He was a master craftsman at figuring out what products to focus on and which ones to eliminate. More importantly, he also paid absolute attention to the features each of these products had.

Steve Jobs returned to Apple when it was in disarray in 1997. The company had been building too many products and none of them were breaking the ice with the consumers. Jobs started the consolidation work by cutting down on the products. He had four products and categorized them as per their market demands. Apple could focus on building fewer products with greater quality and the rest is history:

Products
iMac
iBook
PowerMac
PowerBook

Steve Jobs did an excellent categorisation as per the end users and market demand. The four by four matrix was the start of the resurgence for Apple computers to become the most valuable company in the world:

Product & User Categorisation
Desktop/Consumer
Portable/Consumer
Desktop/Professional
Portable/Professional

2. End to End Responsibility

Jobs was obsessed with the products he was involved in. He literally drove people mad. He cared for the users more than anyone could imagine. He had an intuitive sense of what users would like. He was probably the first product manager to understand the end to end experience of a product.

Jobs understood that end to end experience can be created by taking control of the hardware, software and building integrated systems. Apple created an ecosystem where they build things end to end. When Apple built the iphones, they struck a deal with AT&T for mobile networks. Steve Jobs was always thinking ahead, Apple took control of the design, manufacturing, packaging and marketing of the iPhone. They also had deals with mobile network operators and ensured best experience for their customers.

All great products make users’ lives easier. Steve Jobs wanted things to work smoothly and make things simple for them. Jobs and Apple understood end to end experience much better than others and even went out of their way to partner with other industries to take care of their customers.

3. Think for the Users

iTunes was a great example of end user thinking from Steve Jobs. When the product was conceptualised, there was no easy way for users to license songs on their devices. Apple solved this problem for the users. It provided them an easy and elegant way to purchase songs of their choice and listen to them on their devices anytime anywhere.

The design of the iphone with touch screen was another remarkable feature. Steve Jobs wanted to rebuild the complete mobile experience and make it extremely intuitive for the users. The delivered iphone, which became one of the highest selling products of all time. It changed the way people used their mobile devices.

4. Captivating Designs

“Designing a product is keeping five thousand things in your brain and fitting them
all together in new and different ways to get what you want. And everyday you discover something new that is a new problem or a new opportunity to fit these things together a little differently.”
                                                                                                                                               Steve Jobs

The way a product is designed can either make or break it. The first experience of a user with your product goes a long way in shaping their perception about it. Jobs was a connoisseur of great designs. He had a great repulsion with anything that wasn’t captivating and brilliantly done. He could spend countless hours and iterations to make things intuitive and simple.

Jobs was perhaps the best product manager ever who had a knack of producing excellent products. The product design played and shaped much of Apple’s success. Whether it was Mac, ipad, ipod, iphone or Macbook, it is hard to find a better designed product in the market. Designing a great product requires stripping away everything that is unnecessary. It helps users focus on what they need to do and makes things intuitive for them.

5. Innovate Business Models

Product managers need to think ahead. They need to understand the business models and the context for their products today. You cannot build products that don’t compare favourably with your competitors, at least in some cases.

Jobs developed great business thinking where he connected business, technology, design and the consumers perfectly. He knew what they needed to build, for whom they needed to build, at what price and how it would reach them. He showcased this business model thinking into iTunes, iCloud, and several other string of successful products developed at Apple.

6. Push Boundaries

Debi Coleman who worked on the original Mac team said, “We did the impossible, because we didn’t realise that it was impossible.”

Steve Jobs’ approach to product management constantly pushed boundaries of what was possible, they defied the odds and built world brilliant products. Innovation demands great efforts and the best product managers know what to focus on.

When the Mac team was working to build the computer, they put in a crazy number of hours at the office. Many of them regularly clocked over 20 hours on 7 days a week for months at a stretch. The pushed boundaries in every which way. The Macintosh computer was the first successful mass consumer computer to have a graphical user interface, mouse and built in screen.

7. Staying Ahead of the Curve

Jobs once said, “customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them.” He reminisced what Henry ford said long ago, “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!’”

Product management is about figuring out the needs and expectations of your customers before they can understand it themselves. It is about figuring out the unarticulated wishes of customers. This is what great companies do. When you are building products, it takes time to develop and ship the products. If you are only building things as good as the current ones in the market, it may not meet the expectations.

The best product managers understand, anticipate and innovate their way forward. They have a vision for the future. They develop skills to guide their teams from the present to the future.

8. Understanding Marketing & Supply Chain

Steve Jobs was one of the most fascinating leaders of our times. He understood marketing better than any of his peers. Apple campaigns stood out and made it a noticeable brand in the early years. Jobs perfected his delivery and launched products with enthusiasm and energy that attracted followers around the world.

Jobs was a storyteller par excellence. He knew how he needed to connect with others. Whether it was his teams, vendors, customers, or distributors. He reimagined the supply chain for some of the products that Apple built. For e.g. launching an Apple Store and even charging developers for launching their apps on it. It was a great example of how Jobs could reinvent the way apps were developed and distributed. And Apple made a lot of money too.

9. Insanely Great

“When we finally presented it at the shareholders’ meeting, everyone in the auditorium gave it a five-minute ovation. What was incredible to me was that I could see the Mac team in the first few rows. It was as though none of us could believe we’d actually finished it. Everyone started crying.”
                                                                                                                                                       Steve Jobs

This is what Steve Jobs said when they finally finished the MacIntosh. Everyone who worked on the Macintosh team remembers as the product of their lives. Jobs himself said that he had never worked harder on anything. The team had worked countless hours for 2-3 years and finally they could deliver a masterpiece that is treasured in the echelons of time.

Steve Jobs led his team to build products like iTunes, iPod, Pixar Animation films, iPhone, iPad, Macbook etc. But one thing that defined each of these products was -they were insanely great. These products were built by people who were passionate and loved what they were doing. The Steve Jobs mantra for building products or whatever you’ve chosen to do with your life – it has to be insanely great.

Businesses around the world have had their share of challenges in the recent past. Over four million small and midsize businesses in the US were permanently closed after the lockdowns. Virtual accounting services for businesses have emerged as a strong pillar for companies to manage compliances, regulatory reporting and effective management reporting.

Navigating the challenges and complexities of the business world gets harder, if you are not well prepared. When your business is growing or looking for ways to improve, accounting helps you track things. It helps your business assess where and how the resources are spent. It helps you track avenues for growth, opportunity and progress. However, access to strategic finance and accounting data is not always easy. Entrepreneurs and business owners often need to spend a significant amount of time in accounting to stay on top of their company needs.

Virtual accounting services can be a good alternative for small and medium sized businesses to keep their financial operations, regulatory compliances and bookkeeping in order. It can save time, money and strategic insights for business growth. Here’s a look at the pros and cons of virtual accounting services for your company. 

1. Regulations & Compliance 

Every business needs to stay compliant with local rules and regulations. This is often a tedious task as the laws and rules keep changing. Businesses need to spend a lot of key resources and management time to stay compliant. Not to mention the stringent penalties, legal, criminal proceedings involved in neglect of regulations and compliances. 

Virtual accounting services can provide end to end compliance as per the laws of the land. They can help a business focus on their core operations and let the virtual accounting teams take care of everything else. So, when it comes to filing income tax returns, regulatory and compliance reporting, the virtual accounting team prepares and files the reports as per applicable laws.

2. Strategic Financial Data

When your business is growing, you need access to key financial metrics at your fingertips all the time. This is important for raising capital, taking loans and planning your company expansion. The virtual accounting services can help you with real-time updates and data whenever you need it.

In addition to managing your monthly bookkeeping and financial data, they can also provide you structured reports for assessing your business. Virtual accounting takes care of things like financial budgeting, planning, cost benefit analysis, fixed asset analysis, resource costs, tax structuring etc.

Good understanding of the financial data is key to running a successful business. Virtual accounting provides in depth expertise to reduce overhead costs, plan and operate the business with better financial measures. 

3. Online Bookkeeping Services 

Virtual accounting services can help a business manage its bookkeeping with ease. The online bookkeeping services can provide management with monthly reconciliation reports, track all incomes, expenses, assets and inventory etc.

The bookkeeping services provide all assistance for preparing financial reports like income expenses, profit & loss, cashflow, trial balance & balance sheets. These are automatically sent to the management with up to date reporting.

Virtual accounting not only provides the company with all financial reports, but presents an overall picture of the organisation. It helps the company track its data for interest paid on loans, pending principal amount, track ROI on projects & assess overall books for the business with greater accuracy.

4. Better Financial Insights 

Financial insights can make a huge impact on the overall health of a business. The virtual accounting team with its expertise in finances often provides invaluable insights. These insights are often driven by automation, data analysis and deep knowledge of finance & accounting.

If a company is reporting a loss for a specific quarter, the software can report the loss proactively and also the reasons for the loss. For e.g. Company ABC is expected to report a loss of $200,000 in Jan-Mar quarter, the reasons for the loss are outlined as below:
i)   Penalties due to delay in Mining project
ii)  Man power unavailability due to Corona
iii) Upfront Capital expenses

The insights can be based on data and industry expertise. Infact, the software driven insights can also provide remedial suggestions for businesses. The software and virtual accounting acts like a virtual CFO for the company providing it real time strategic inputs for increasing cash flow, profits and overall financial health of the organisation.

5. Vetted Processes

The virtual account team provides organisations with vetted processes and complete support for business management. They have predefined account calendars for companies. These can help companies with taxation services for employees, improve tax planning, manage state and federal compliances and assist with end to end needs for business management.

The virtual accounting team uses the latest tools and technologies to manage your business accounts. As a business, you don’t have to worry about bills, vouchers and documents, the virtual team takes care of all this for your business. Timely and accurately preparing financial reports can save a lot of money as well as company resources. A full time accountant for a small & medium size business often costs more than virtual accounting services.

Cons of Virtual Accounting Services

i) Data Privacy & Confidentiality 

Financial and accounting data needs a lot of transparency and security. When a virtual accounting team takes over, having the confidentiality agreements and security for your business is paramount. It is imperative that your company’s data remains private, confidential and never shared with third parties. A trusted virtual accounting team must be able to assure these aspects.

ii) Vendor Lock Ins

It may be possible that your virtual accounting team has a lock-in period. You may want to clarify at the beginning your long term horizons and needs. If you are not satisfied with the expertise of the virtual accounting teams or their services, it should be easy for you to switch to some other service provider. In case of switching, you should be able to get up to date accounts and data for your company.

Overall, more businesses are relying on outsourced expertise for accounting. Virtual accounting increases reliability, creates structured processes and improves the overall coordination for regulatory reporting. It is a way businesses can focus on building the core value proposition and grow their business, leaving accounting and compliance matters to the experts.

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Reinvent Yourself by James Altucher

Reinvent Yourself is a series of interesting, short stories with many nuggets of wisdom. You’ll learn about the importance of listening, improving yourself every day, persisting through challenges, and adding genuine value to the people around you.

Continue reading “Make America Great Again!” →

Most people fancy themselves as leaders. However, not many people are endowed with leadership ability to be effective. Leadership is a tough job, it requires you to be able to connect, inspire and produce the results that matter.

So, how to measure the effectiveness of your leadership? Are you a good leader? Jack Zenger & Joe Folkman researched this & studied over 300,000 leaders to understand the characteristics that made leaders great for their teams. Intriguingly, Zenger analysed that results-focus and people-focus weren’t the characteristics that produced great leadership on a consistent basis.

But, leaders who were able to bring about a balanced approach to focus on results as well as people were perceived great. A study by David Rock conducted on this found that this quality is found in less than 1% of all leaders. Leaders who are able to strike a balance between people and results are a rare breed, 72% of the employees perceived them as leaders.

In isolation, these characteristics often backfire, the people-focus often leads teams to be in a disarray not producing the results. The results-focus can create a cold atmosphere which is too tense and counterproductive in the long run. But a formidable and balanced approach combining the two characteristics produces great leadership.

An effective leader takes a pragmatic approach where he is concerned about people, but doesn’t lose sight of the big picture. He is driven towards the goals as well as the people driving these goals. Here’s a look at some of the characteristics that make effective leaders, according to research:

1. Leaders Deliver Feedback

In his book, ‘The One Minute Manager’, Kenneth Blanchard mentions a very systematic approach to feedback. It is actionable and fairly simple. The approach goes something like this: when a teammate reports a task to you, as a leader your job is to deliver feedback. When you want to reprimand the person, use 30 seconds to tell the person what he has done wrong & spend the next 30 seconds telling him how he can correct his mistakes.

If you want to praise a person for doing a task well, spend time praising and telling people what they did right. It takes only a minute, but goes a long way to encourage your team.

2. Set Daily Goals

The best leaders use the morning time to communicate with their teams. They spend 1 minute to discuss goals with individual members, not to get into the unnecessary details. But a high level overview of what needs to be achieved.

They ensure that their teams spend their work time effectively aligned to their goals and priorities. With the growing complexity and volume of tasks, sometimes teams are unable to prioritise. When your leader spends a quick minute, it helps you zone into the right things to start your day. The right focus requires leadership.

3. Leaders Produce Results

The job of a leader is to create results that matter the most. The best leaders in the organisation are able to achieve prolific results, much better than others in the same position. The most effective leaders are able to combine the acumen, energy and strengths of their teams to achieve astonishing results.

These leaders develop competencies that help them analyse and solve issues with their teams. They help their organisations champion changes through hard times, take ownership and responsibility to drive the results.

4. High Ethical & Moral Standards

Leaders who display high ethical and moral standards are the ones who command respect. They are able to win the confidence of their teams. While leadership effectiveness is driven by various competencies in different industries. Integrity and honesty are traits that are common across industries.

People watch their leaders and take cues from their behaviours. A person who displays a high degree of integrity and comes across as authentic establishes trust. It makes the other person more comfortable and willing to do his best.

Of all leadership competencies, high ethical and moral standards were rated as the top most competency by 67% participants.

5. Nurtures Growth & Development 

The top leaders are driven by progress and development of their teams & organisations. Business leaders more than ever need to show an appetite for learning and growth. When employees feel that their managers care for their development, beyond the routine tasks, they become more productive and efficient. 

The best leaders are also aware of the areas in which they need to improve. They solicit feedback and inputs from others. They help other people as well as seek help from others. The strength of the team lies in the collaborative approach where everyone is trying to help and achieve shared goals.

When leaders care for their employees, they reciprocate in kind. They push themselves to go the extra mile and help their teams. Great leaders create environments where everyone is constantly encouraging and pushing each other towards their growth. Leaders help their teams understand that by increasing their competency, skills and quality of work, they are setting themselves up for success.

Human nature is rooted in wanting more than you already have. People are constantly trying to push their boundaries to achieve more. More so, if you are an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs who use gratitude to take their success to another level.

You are expected to run an enterprise, build systems and grow your entity to serve larger interests of people around you. It takes hustle and running around your goals day in day out. So, when does one get the time to thank for all that is going well in your life.

Gratitude is a powerful force that helps you connect with others, look at the brighter aspects of life and take a break from a relentless pursuit of your goals.

Here’s a look at how entrepreneurs can use gratitude to build more purposeful companies and become more balanced in their day lives.

1. Gratitude is a Mindset

Your perspective of things matters in business. You may be presented with a challenging situation, but practising gratitude can help you reassess things in a pragmatic way. When your key employees leave, it could be a time to groom a younger employee and in some cases take ownership of things yourself.

By taking an approach of gratitude, you can focus on the good things and thank those who are responsible for them. It creates a difference, your mental energies are system work the best when you are joyful, according to scientific studies. So, when you adopt an attitude of thankfulness, gratitude and joy, it helps those around you to focus on their work too.

2. Make a List

As humans we are hardwired to count things that are not going well for us. Entrepreneurs are driven by lists and todo items to meet their day to day needs. However, a simple list of items that worked well and things that you’re thankful for could give your brain a boost.

Creating lists forces your brain to think of the pleasant & positive things in your day. It helps you release chemicals in your brain that create a feel good factor. Entrepreneurs need to see possibilities and writing down 3 things everyday for which you are grateful can do miracles for your well being.

A habit of writing a gratitude journal everyday is a powerful tool used by many successful entrepreneurs.

3. Impact on Relationships & Health

Taking care of relationships and health is one of the top priorities for an entrepreneur. When you maintain good relationships with your customers, employees, vendors and others around you, it certainly helps you build your business better.

A habit of practising gratitude leads to positivity in a person. It helps them connect with others and see things in a broader context. A study was conducted at the University of California by Robert A. Emmons to understand the effects of gratitude. The impact of gratitude was studied on health, psychological well being & relationships. Here’s what Robert & his team found:

Physical Health
Stronger immune system.
Better handle aches and pains.
Lower blood pressure and stress.
Exercise more and take better care of their health.
Sleep longer and feel more refreshed upon waking.

Psychological health
Higher levels of positive emotions & healthy attitude.
More alert, alive, and awake.
More joyful, optimistic, happiness, and pleasure.

Relationships with Others
More helpful, generous, and compassionate.
More forgiving.
Feel less lonely and isolated.

4. Doing What You Love

Entrepreneurs are building and doing things they love most of the time. It is a rare privilege. It has its own hurdles and challenges, but the most important thing is that you are doing what you always wanted to do.

Every job has certain elements that you don’t like. Entrepreneurship is no different. The successful entrepreneurs learn to be grateful for the things that have worked for them. While sales quota can always be higher, the teams can always ship better quality products & do them faster, but so many things worked well. So many people spend their lives running away from things they are doing. Yet as an entrepreneur, you have escaped from that trap.

5. Team

71% of the American workforce don’t feel motivated at work. Employee disengagement is one of the biggest hurdles for modern businesses. Preston did a study and found that feeling unappreciated is one of the top reasons for employee disengagement at work.

Gratitude has a positive impact on employees. Psychological Science conducted a study and found that employees feel more trusted, are more satisfied, perform better & practice more loyalty, when they are appreciated.

When your team misses a deadline, it is natural for you to be disappointed. You may shout and display your anger at them. But this is a moment that separates the ordinary entrepreneurs from the extra-ordinary ones. The best entrepreneurs back their team, they thank the employees for trying their best and all the work they did instead of rebuking them for missing the deadline. Employees feel empowered and energized when they have a leader who practices gratitude. Gratitude can help you build great teams that go out of the way to support each other.

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Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves

The Viral Loop by Adam L. Penenberg talks about companies which have reached massive scale in few years without blowing millions due to the viral nature of their product. Discover what makes companies and their products viral.

Continue reading “Good Bye 2020” →

The valuation of a startup is one of the ways to measure its impact. CB Insights has compiled a report on the highest valued startups in the world. Many startups are united by their quest for achieving the valuation of $1billion or more. There are more than 500 unicorn startups in the world as of November 2020.

A startup’s value is determined by its ability to create a compelling value proposition for the market, its size, recent exits, demand for the products and execution capabilities. As many as six of the top 10 startups are from the US, three are from China and one from India. Here’s a look at the highest valued startups in the world.

1. ByteDance

ByteDance is a Chinese AI startup & the parent company of TikTok. The company was founded by Zhang Yiming in 2012. The company has a staggering valuation of $140 billion in just 8 years since it was founded.

ByteDance has a core product offering called Toutiao. It is a content platform serving the global market. While Toutiao started as a new recommendation engine, it has evolved into a content platform for delivering contextual content based on user preferences. ByteDance had over 800 million daily active users in November 2018 & overall 1 billion users on its content platforms.

ByteDance uses machine learning algorithms to understand content (videos, text and images) and provides personalised information recommendations for its users. The company has also developed a AI bot that can write news articles within 2 seconds after the event. The company has a revenue of around $20 billion in 2019 and over 60,000 employees around the world.

2. Didi Chuxing

Another Chinese company, Didi Chuxing grabs the spot for the second highest valued startup at $62 billion. The company provides transportation and on demand ride sharing options for users. It was founded by Cheng Wei in 2012.

Didi Chuxing also provides automobile services including sales, leasing, financing and maintenance of vehicles with automakers. The company provides on demand digital platforms for automakers to reach users. The company has 550 million users as of 2019 and over 11,000 employees.

Uber China was acquired by Didi in 2016 at $35 billion. Uber China was reported losing $1 billion annually at the time. Uber also picked up a minority stake in Didi as part of this deal.

3. SpaceX

SpaceX is one of the most popular startups in the world. The space exploration startup is one of the most ambitious projects started by Elon Musk in 2002. The goal of the company is to reduce space transportation costs.

SpaceX was the first private company to send a liquid propellant rocket to reach the orbit in 2008. It is also the first private company to send astronauts into space and have developed reusable rocket prototype. The US based startup had a revenue of $2 billion in 2019 and employs over 8,000 people as of May 2002.

4. Stripe

Stripe is an American startup and financial services company. It is headquartered in San Francisco. The company was founded by Irish brothers, John and Patrick Collison in 2010. The financial services company developed a SaaS based platform for payment transactions on ecommerce sites, mobile apps and web applications around the world.

Stripe provides APIs for businesses to help them send and accept payments over the internet. Stripe has a valuation of $36 billion and is the fourth highest valued startup in the world. It has over 2,500 employees & a revenue of $380 million in 2019.

5. AirBnB

AirBnB is the world’s most popular online vacation rental marketplace. The startup was founded by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk in 2008. According to CB Insights report, the startup is valued at $18 billion.

AirBnB provides on demand rental accommodation to millions of users worldwide. It also offers an easy way for people to list their rental properties and earn money with online bookings. The company had a revenue of $4.7 billion in 2019 and employs 6,300 people as of 2020.

AirBnB has been affected due to Covid and the company had to fire 25% of its staff this year & significant drop in rental bookings this year. However, the startup is all set for an IPO in December 2020.

6. Kuaishou

Kuaishou is another video sharing Chinese start-up that is among the most valued. The company was founded by Su Hua & Cheng Yixiao in 2011 and is a TikTok competitor. Apart from China, the app remains among the most downloaded in Google Play & Apple App store.

Kuaishou has a valuation of $18 billion. It has over 200 million active daily users on its platform as of 2019. The company uses AI for creating video content tailored for users. The company generated a revenue of $7.2 billion in 2019 & employs around 2,400 people.

7. Instacart

Instacart is a grocery delivery & pick-up service in America & Canada. The startup was founded in 2012 by Apoorva Mehta, Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo. The on demand service allows users to order online grocery & provides them options from various retailers with a personal shopper. The personal shopper is a recommendation engine based on user preferences.

Instacart is headquartered in San Francisco, California and serves over 5,500 cities in America and Canada. Instacart has a valuation of $18 billion.

8. Epic Games

Epic Games is an American game and software development company. Epic Games was founded by Tim Sweeney in 1991, back then the company was known as Potomac Computer Systems. The company was started in his parents’ house.

The company built Games as a service for its users. The traditional video games are now being offered as an online service to the users (GaaS). In 2019, Epic Games reported a revenue of $4.2 billion. Epic Games had over 1,000 employees as of 2020.

9. One97 Communications/PayTM

One97 Communications is the parent company of PayTM. It is the most valuable Indian startup as of now with a valuation of $16 billion. PayTM is an online payment system and financial technology company. The wallet service from PayTM is used for online shopping, mobile recharges, train bookings, grocery stores, tolls, pharmacies etc.

PayTM was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2010. The company now provides digital wallet services, banking, & PayTM Mall app for its users. The company generates revenue from commissions on usage of its platform and from escrow amounts from its wallet services. The startup had a revenue of $500 million in 2019. PayTM employs close to 10,000 people in India.

10. DoorDash

DoorDash is the second food delivery service to be featured among the 10 highest valued startups in the world. It offers logistics services to offer food delivery from restaurants on-demand to its users. DoorDash was founded in 2013 by Tony Xu, Evan Moore, Stanley Tang and Andy Fang. The American company has expanded to serve over 4,000 cities and covers over 340,000 restaurants/stores in the US, Canada & Australia.

The startup is valued at $16 billion and had a revenue of $1.9 billion as per Nov 2020 SEC filing. The company generates its revenues from commissions it receives on orders placed on its platform. It employs around 3,279 people as of Nov 2020.

Innovative Growth hacking ideas are ways to creatively differentiate your business to gain more customers at a rapid pace. With the world changing the way it did in 2020, many businesses are looking to adopt creative ideas to reach their customers faster using digital technologies. Growth hacking strategies are employed by most of the successful businesses that operate digitally.

The exponential rise in adoption with increasing popularity of platforms like Slack, Dropbox & Uber etc. can be attributed to creative growth hacking ideas. These ideas are at the heart of building products that go viral and where users are incentivised for sharing and bringing other users on-board. Growth hacking is a super effective way to multiply your reach and grow your customer base with exponential returns. Here’s a look at 7 innovative growth hacking ideas for building your business:

1.  Pre Launch Target 

Growth hacking starts with defining an audience for your idea. Who needs to try your product or service? Who is your customer? Once you define your customer, think about where your customers hang out.

Build an email list, gather facebook profiles, Online directories, Youtube channel subscribers etc for your business. A pre launch list will help you create a tailored message that you can communicate to your audience. 

i)  Highlight the value proposition in one line for your customers & why they should try
ii)  Provide a way for your target audience to try your product or service
iii) Incentivise them for sharing your products and service with others.
iv) Call to action is the key. Get them to register and try out things. Make this bold, large and actionable.

2. Existing Platforms

One of the ways you can acquire a large user base is to tap into the existing networks. Airbnb famously developed a growth hacking strategy that helped them build users on its platform from Craigslist.

When Airbnb was launched, it developed a creative website that displayed the rental options for users with high quality photographs. They employed a hack where every listing that was created on Airbnb was also listed on Craigslist.

The catch was that Cragslist wasn’t as well designed as Airbnb. But it had a much larger user base. So, when users searched Craigslist for rental options, they could see rental options from Airbnb with links etc. They invariably tried Airbnb and found it much more to their liking than Craigslist. This simple strategy helped Airbnb develop its initial user base with success and helped them reach more users. 

The idea of integrating your product or service with an existing platform with a bigger user base can be done in thoughtful and creative ways. Think about the biggest networks used by your customers and how you can creatively tap them.

Your growth hacking option could be a strategic collaboration with a partner. For e.g. if an existing platform can promote your product or service to its user base, you could offer a commission for every sign-up or sale. 

3. Incentivise Customers  

When customers use your products, incentivise them. Make every interaction with your product meaningful for the users. For e.g. when Facebook was launched initially, it had developed an algorithm, which helped with friend recommendations. These friend recommendations were tailored to build a fast network for its users and lure them with feeds they’re interested in.

LinkedIn uses a similar strategy for building a professional network. It also provides options for endorsements and recommendations etc. This gamification essentially provides a reward for using the product to the customers. Dropbox used a strategy where once the user’s free storage expired, they could add extra storage by referring friends who signed-up on Dropbox.

Viral products and companies reward its customers. Remember the network chain marketing companies like Tupperware. They built their network by adding more people and rewarding people with larger networks who joined them.

4. Personalisation & Recommendations

Every consumer loves a platform tailored to his needs & choices. The growth of Netflix as the preferred video streaming service has a lot to do with the recommendations and personalisation based on user demographics.

When users create an account on your product or service, do they get personalised options? The recommendations and choices can make a big difference. Twitter adopted this approach for sharing the twitter accounts that users can follow. When the users follow the twitter accounts of influencers, they get recommended feeds and content to their liking.

Youtube also has a powerful recommendation engine. It suggests content based on the user’s history and interests. It also provides intuitive sharing options for users to upload new videos and share them with in their networks.

5. Leverage Communities 

Growth hacking ideas are based on leveraging communities that have similar shared interests. These communities could be social groups that go out for cycling, tracking, tech events or virtual groups on social media.

The communities have people with shared hobbies. It makes tapping into their interests easier by sending a message that appeals to the members. Uber built its initial user base by tapping into the tech community. The Uber team went to tech events and offered free rides to users who were attending. The service was used by people who liked it and shared their experience with others. They did this initially in San Francisco and replicated their success to other cities.

Communities provide feedback groups to companies for trying out their products and services. When users share their experience with each other, it adds credibility and increases adoption of your product or service. Social proof is a great way to enhance value for your business.

6. Use Scarcity or limited Offers

Products with a scarce availability are grabbed quickly by the users. When organisations offer a limited time window for trying products or a trial by referral, it can help attract quality customers.

This strategy was adopted by Gmail for introducing its email to customers. Only users with existing accounts could invite new users on the Gmail platform. This soon became a marketing tactic and Google employed this tactic to create an enormous interest for its email service.
Scarcity can be a great resource when you are offering a product or service to a customer’s need. 

7. Complementary Content & Services 

Many companies have been able to leverage the digital content for building a powerful brand. One Dollar Shave Club is an online subscription service for razors and male grooming products. The startup was able to build on its brand on the back of a funny viral video. The company has since then created a string of popular videos and funny viral marketing strategies to popularise its subscription services.

A large number of startups are investing in creating high quality content for their users. Mail Online is the world’s second most popular news website behind New York Times. It has been able to achieve high sales for its business without affecting its newspaper sales. It offers a wide range of content mix on its website. The online content generates money from click baits and ads. By offering complementary products and services, companies are able to achieve brand recognition and improve sales for their business. 

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