“If you look at the definition of startup, Iraj Islam, co-founder of content marketing giant NewsCred says, it essentially comes down to growth.” Any company can’t be a startup. It has to have this one ingredient that enables it to grow really fast. “Growth is very central to any startup,” adds Iraj.
However, startups growth is not about traditional marketing. It is more than that. As Iraj puts it: “Growth does not come from marketing and growth does not come from funding. Growth comes from doing the right thing and working hard on your product and customers.”
It is often challenging for people to understand the idea of growth hacking and finding alternative ways of growth other than traditional marketing. Indeed, growth hacking itself is a mystery and a process of continuous experiment. Below, find four must-reads that look closely at how growth works and how you can apply growth hacking techniques at your startup.
1. Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday
“[A] growth hacker is someone who has thrown out the playbook of traditional marketing and replaced it with only what is testable, trackable, and scalable” ― Ryan Holiday
2. Hooked by Nir Eyal, Editor: Ryan Hoover
“Many innovations fail because consumers irrationally overvalue the old while companies irrationally overvalue the new.” ― Nir Eyal
3. Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
“Traction trumps everything” — Gabriel Weinberg
4. 100 Days of Growth by Sujan Patel & Rob Wormley
Straight-forward, actionable growth hacks for startups.
