Common Growth Myths and Misconceptions

Before moving on to your first Growth Program project, we want to take a moment to debunk a few common myths about growth marketing.

Giving any credence to the following myths could undermine all your growth efforts, so it’s important to acknowledge them for what they are: unfounded theories.

By rejecting the following myths, we’re really reaffirming an actual growth marketing truth: Real, lasting growth takes strategy, not luck.

Growth hacking

Around 2010, a term started to circulate in the startup and marketing worlds: growth hacking.

"Growth hacking" was the tenacious pursuit of business growth, applying a systematic approach that looked well beyond traditional marketing methods and into product development.

For example, Airbnb used growth hacking to register its first users—while validating that it was building something people wanted.

How? They made it extremely easy to post an Airbnb listing to Craigslist through a custom integration. If that sounds like an engineering/product project rather than a marketing one, that’s because it was.

That’s all well and good. But the problem is that the word hacking has taken on multiple meanings that can create confusion. We believe it leads people to think there's a single tactic that can 100x your growth overnight, and it's your job as a marketer to find it.

That's a myth.

We think this is worth clarifying because "tactic hunting" contradicts our first guiding principle of growth: Focus wins.

Bouncing from hack to hack without establishing repeatable and sustainable practices isn't an effective or enjoyable way to run a business.

Note: Growth hacks only work if the product solves a painful problem for a specific customer who is motivated to pay to solve it. Airbnb was already at that stage. So, their clever hack scaled their in-demand product faster.

We don't refer to our work as growth hacking or ourselves as growth hackers. Beware of those who try to sell you on the idea that a single hack can turn your business into an overnight success. Anyone promising a way of getting significant growth quickly will likely get rich off YOU.

Instead, we'll teach you how to test ideas quickly, but we'll also set realistic expectations about what kind of growth to expect and how long it will take.

This brings us to our next misconception: chasing silver bullets.

The silver bullet fallacy

A "silver bullet" is a metaphor for a single activity that will guarantee victory. Like growth hacking, the silver bullet fallacy is the idea that a single marketing activity or channel will automatically lead to exponential growth.

After running thousands of experiments on every single channel and working with over a thousand startups, we can confidently say that we have yet to see a single example of a silver bullet.

Growth is hard. Yes, that's a scary statement.

But because growth is hard, you'll gain a competitive advantage when you get it right.

Startups chasing silver bullets might get short-term wins, but growth will likely stop there. They'll lose in the long run unless they take a more thoughtful and strategic approach.

Therein lies your opportunity: If you can grow purposefully from the start, then you'll hold a competitive advantage.

A solid growth engine doubles as a barrier preventing your competition from stealing your customers.

Why startups struggle to grow

We've covered why marketing is critical to a startup's success. But the concept of marketing or customer acquisition isn't a secret.

So why do marketing problems remain a primary reason for startup failure?

We have a few possible explanations:

1. Bootstrapped startups can't afford top marketing talent. The best agencies, consultants, and full-time marketers can easily cost $10-15k/month. If hiring isn't an option, founders must learn marketing themselves. It can be done. But it's often a long and risky process. It can take months (if not longer) to sift through the countless articles, blogs, and guides to determine what's high-quality AND relevant to your business. Then there's the issue that even some of the best materials fail to teach you exactly how to execute. They may be useful for pointing you in the right direction, but rarely will you find resources that take you all the way through strategy and step-by-step implementation.
2. It's hard to know what true marketing talent looks like. It's not just bootstrapped startups that struggle. Even well-funded companies that can afford top talent often struggle to scale their customer acquisition. How is that possible? One consistent pattern we've seen is companies lacking the internal expertise to identify good marketing talent. The truth is that just because an agency or consultant is expensive doesn't mean they actually know what they're doing. It takes having at least some growth knowledge to vet growth talent effectively.
3. Top-tier marketing talent is hard to come by. And finally, regardless of funding or expertise, it's hard to hire top talent because they're in high demand (and they know it). They're either making big-time salaries at later-stage companies or they're running their businesses.

None of this is meant to scare you into thinking all is doomed. Amazing agencies and full-time hires are out there (and we can help you find them). But we feel it's important to explain all of this because:

1. It shows how important it is for founders/startup teams to develop in-house expertise.
2. It explains exactly why we built this program.

Strategy based on real growth principles, not myths

Our curriculum gives you everything you need to execute your growth strategy professionally.

We aim to help you build a strong growth foundation and get results for your company.

By completing the Growth Program Curriculum and executing the projects:

• You'll have designed, built, and implemented an acquisition strategy that is actively attracting new customers to your startup.
• You'll have a playbook for adding new acquisition channels and a roadmap for scaling them when the time is right.
• You'll know how to vet new marketing talent thoroughly.
• You'll put your startup on a trajectory to attract top, in-demand talent.
• And you'll have the knowledge and toolset to lead your company's growth efforts yourself.

We hope this makes you even more excited about your decision to join Demand Curve. If none of the above is new to you, then that's great—we did a good job with our marketing efforts. 😉