Welcome to GTM Vault, where 20,000+ founders and revenue leaders decode the playbooks behind B2B’s fastest-growing companies.
This week: Sean Ellis — the original growth hacker behind Dropbox, Eventbrite, and LogMeIn — breaks down why most founders stall out, and what’s changing in the AI era of growth.
“Understand growth. Everything else flows from there.” — Sean Ellis
🔦 This Week’s Spotlight
Sean Ellis (author of Hacking Growth, creator of GoPractice.io, early growth leader at multiple unicorns) on what really drives breakout growth:
🎯 The Dropbox Secret: Growth started before the referral program — natural virality + relentless onboarding optimization.
🛠️ Freemium That Doesn’t Suck: Why LogMeIn re-architected before they could afford to offer anything free.
🤖 AI’s Real Role: Faster testing, sharper onboarding — but fundamentals (PMF + retention) still reign supreme.
🚀 Growth Culture: Build teams that love failing fast — and treat version 1 of anything as a test.
📈 Activation > Acquisition: Most companies chase paid ads too early. Fix activation first — or churn will kill you later.
🎯 5 Tactical Takeaways (Steal These)
Product-Market Fit or Bust 🎯
"No PMF, no growth engine. Period. AI won’t save you if the product sucks."Activation Is Everything 🚪
Long-term retention (and growth) is decided in the first moments. Onboarding isn’t just UX — it’s survival.Focus on Superfans 🦸♂️
Use the "Must-Have Survey": Double down on users who’d be very disappointed if you disappeared. Forget the lukewarm.Freemium Needs Economics 📉
Don’t offer free until your unit costs support it. (LogMeIn’s server re-architecture dropped bandwidth costs by 95% — then they launched freemium.)Founders Must Own Growth 🧠
Growth isn’t a department. It’s a cross-functional system. Founders who scale (like Drew Houston) own growth as a system, not just a goal.
📚 GTM Toolkit: This Week’s Top Reads
🔗 The Growth Marketing Lifecycle Framework
→ Understand how activation, retention, and virality fit together across the startup journey — from PMF to scale.
🔗 How to Leverage Freemium for Acquisition
→ A tactical breakdown of when freemium actually works—and how to avoid the "free users who never convert" trap.
🔗 The New Growth Funnel (Activation-First)
→ Why activation matters more than acquisition today—and how the best startups (like Dropbox) design for it.
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