In other words, growth hacking can’t turn a poor product into a unicorn. It can’t find product-market fit. And, even for large companies, making quantum leaps in the business is not guaranteed, although sometimes good people get really lucky.
Investors seem unaware of the dilemma startups face right now. Traba’s CEO, Terrence Cummings, explains: “On a per unit basis, we knew what we needed to do. Early in 2014, our traffic was growing 35 percent month over month and our engagement numbers were strong — 9 percent of the people coming to our site were converting. But we also knew the numbers didn’t make sense to spend on paid ads, since we had no revenue coming in.”
“During fundraising, investors pushed us to spend money [to lower their own risk] even though we knew it wasn’t the right thing at the time and we didn’t have the money. We had cash flow positive acquisition costs, but it wasn’t scaling. We weren’t at product-market fit, but we couldn’t get to product-market fit without raising money.”
Many startups are founded by young developers with no background in marketing; or by industry experts who haven’t tackled digital or ecommerce marketing in their careers. Some see the impressive resumes of VCs as a reason to give up a little extra equity. Once inside the VC firm or accelerator, it’s usually a surprise to learn that there is no “secret” back door to growth. As Slack demonstrated with its laser focus on core features, getting to product-market fit is just hard, disciplined, consistent effort to talk to customers, uncover problems, and fix them. In other words, it’s all still just good marketing.
Until startups learn to focus on product-market fit before growth hacking, Chief Marketing Officer may continue be the worst job in a technology startup. I know, I was one. And I can report that companies typically hire Chief Marketing Officers and growth hackers way too early, thinking “We have a great product, now someone needs to sell it.” When the new marketing hire cannot overcome poor product fit, the company is in jeopardy, and the marketer is usually the scapegoat. Tech companies rarely fail due to poor marketing. They fail because no one wanted the product, or because of poor executive leadership.
修正です
「グロースハッキング以前に、スタートアップが製品を市場に合わせることを学ぶまで」
「グロースハッキング以前に、スタートアップが製品を市場に合わせることに重点を置くことを学ぶまで」
You may think you can delegate “marketing” once your product is built. Nothing could be further from the truth. With rare exceptions, hiring a full-time marketer is something a startup does after it had found some success. In the meantime, you can work with specialists, contractors, and advisors to help you save time and money while you find product-market fit.
So, what can startups do to find product-market fit if it’s not growth hacking?
そうであれば、製品と市場のフィットを見つけるためにスタートアップは何ができるのだろうか?それがグロースハッキングでない場合に。
では、それがグロースハッキングでない場合、スタートアップは、プロダクト・マーケット・フィット(PMF)を見つけるために何ができるのだろう?
I’ll get to that in part two of this series, where we’ll look at some good frameworks and ideas for tackling early-stage growth from Andy Johns, Mat Johnson, and more experts. Stay tuned.
Melinda Byerley is founder of TimeShareCMO, a data-driven digital marketing consultancy. She previously founded Vendorsi.com, and prior to that was CMO at Poll Everywhere and held various marketing roles at PlantSense, Linden Lab, eBay, PayPal, and Checkpoint Software.
Melinda Byerley氏はTimeShareCMOというデータ主導のデジタルマーケティングコンサルタント企業の設立者である。かつてVendorsi.comを設立したほか、 その前はPoll EverywhereのCMOであった。さらに、PlantSense、Linden Lab、eBay、PayPal、Checkpoint Softwareにおいてマーケティングの責任者をしていた。
Melinda Byerleyはデータ駆動型デジタルマーケティングのコンサルタント会社TimeShareCMOの創立者である。彼女は以前、Vendorsi.comを設立し、それより前は、Poll Everywhereの最高マーケティング責任者で、 PlantSenseやLinden Lab、eBay、PayPal、Checkpoint Softwareでさまざまな役割のマーケティングを行った。
Melinda byerley はtimeshareCMO, データ駆動デジタル市場のコンサルタント、の創立者です。彼女は以前vendorsi.comを創立したが、その前にPoll Everywhere のCMO、及び、Plantsence、Lindenlab EBay 、PayPal とCheckpoint Softwareでのマーケティング役職を握りました。
翻訳ありがとうございます。
大変申し訳ありませんが、以下の理由によりこの翻訳を却下させていただきます。ご了承ください。
1. 翻訳ガイドラインからの逸脱
2. 不自然な日本語 startupdating declined this translation
修正です
「いわば加速器」→「あるいはアクセラレータ」
修正です
「製品と市場が合った状態にたどり着くのはとにかく困難であり、顧客と話をし、問題を明らかにして修正するために、自制心を持って継続的な努力をする必要がある。」
「製品と市場が合った状態にたどり着くというのは、顧客と話をし、問題を明らかにして修正するために、とにかく困難でも自制心を持って継続的な努力をするということなのである。」