Growth-hacking hard as it needs cross-functional coordination: Sean Ellis

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Sean Ellis is famed for coining the phrase “growth hacking” back in 2010 to showcase how technology upstarts rapidly grow their customer base. Ellis’s book ‘Hacking Growth’, co-authored by Morgan Brown, is a playbook for companies pushing for sustainable growth, derived from his experience of working at startups like Dropbox, Eventbrite, Lookout in their early stages. ET sat down with Ellis on the sidelines of Bangalore Growth Fest hosted by marketing services firm IncrementumX to discuss his plans in India, the growth-at-all-cost mindset among startups, and tech valuations. Edited excerpts.

How did you come up with the phrase growth hacking?

Back in 2010, I wrote a blog post where I recommended hiring a growth hacker for startups. Somebody needs to be focused on getting people in the door to have experiences with the product and build a brand. In a startup, you don't have that luxury, so trying to scrutinise every single activity you do, every single dollar you spend can impact your ability to acquire and retain customers. Then Andrew Chen (general partner and venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz) wrote a blog post around six months later… where he said growth hacker is the new VP of marketing. That’s when it took off.

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