How to find and pull startup growth levers | Matt Lerner (Founder and CEO at SYSTM, Author of Growth Levers)

In Depth

Matt Lerner is the Founder and CEO at SYSTM, a startup coaching consultancy that helps high-potential companies grow their business. Matt also authored the book “Growth Levers”, which shares his framework that's helped over 200 seed-stage startups grow as much as 100x. Previously, Matt was on the early growth team at PayPal, a partner at 500 Startups, and a guest lecturer at Stanford Business School.

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In today’s episode, we discuss:

• Understanding the key drivers of startup success
• Applying the Growth Lever framework
• Several case studies
• Customer-centric growth tactics
• Adapting growth levers for different business models

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Referenced:

• Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/
• Bold Commerce: https://boldcommerce.com/
• Calm: https://www.calm.com/
• Caribou: https://www.usecaribou.com/
• eBay: https://www.ebay.com/
• FATMAP: https://fatmap.com/
• Growth Levers and How to Find Them: https://www.systm.co/growth-levers-matt-lerner-book
• PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/
• Peter Karpas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterkarpas/
• Popsa: https://popsa.com/
• Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/
• Sonic Jobs: https://www.sonicjobs.com/
• SYSTM: https://www.systm.co/

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Where to find Matt Lerner:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewlerner/
• Twitter/X: https://x.com/matthlerner

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Where to find Brett Berson:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson

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Where to find First Round Capital:

• Website: https://firstround.com/
• First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
• This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(03:11) The hidden truth about startup success

(05:10) Popsa's journey: A case study in growth

(07:31) Breaking down the growth lever framework

(11:30) Understanding the customer's journey

(14:14) The art of customer interviews

(18:07) Unlocking growth through customer insights

(24:23) The triple threat: Founder failure modes

(27:32) The power of founder-led growth strategies

(32:42) Unlocking growth bottlenecks

(36:40) Timing and implementation of growth strategies

(39:43) Founder red flags

(41:32) Crafting effective growth experiments

(43:14) Why customer mindset is the ultimate growth driver

(46:19) The power law of business

(48:59) Why startups don’t need paid marketing

(50:47) Growth levers for sales-driven companies

(53:43) Matt's own application of growth principles

(55:39) Growth levers in B2B sales

(57:05) Finding customer "locksmith moments"

(64:08) The mentor who shaped Matt's thinking