Growth & Company

Careers are a team sport, and the Growth & Company community has come a long way from 12 people in a pub in Soho to a vibrant community of 280 senior growth folks. It was great to catch up with everyone last night to: - celebrate members getting new roles, promotions and launching their own startups - reconnect with colleagues and friends - make new connections, share ideas and inspiration Congrats to Daphne Tideman and Morgan Young for winning the 'take a photo with a stranger' competition. 🍾🍾 If you're a senior growth person (Head of and above), and are looking for some partners in crime, then we'd love to have you. Membership is free but carefully vetted. If you want to join the waitlist then send me a DM. Finally, massive thanks to Arron Browne and the team at WeWork for having us! ... no photo selection would be complete without the classic Nicola Anderson blinking shot!

Just started a new role? 🎉 Let’s solidify the good vibes by kicking things off properly. In your first couple of weeks, you should: 🛍️ Show interest in the product. Buy it (let’s assume you’re not marketing oil tankers), use it, subscribe, etc. Share your thoughts! Founders will respect this, and for growth roles it’s crucial that you try to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. 🏃 Make an effort to show up. This one is nuanced, especially if you’re fully remote. But if you can come into the office, do! Mingling in person helps build relationships that set you up for success. Despite the massive changes that occurred during COVID, a lot still happens at the water cooler… 💬 Ask questions. In the early days, you don’t want to annoy your new colleagues but you may also be feeling a bit lost. Try to batch any questions you have and arrange short calls/meetings with your manager where you can. Be careful with Slack! Let’s not forget – you’ve smashed the recruitment process and won the role! They want you on their team and you should keep this in mind if you’re feeling anxious about fitting in. Drop me a message if you’ve just started a new role and are thinking about how to adapt.

Q2 market update - 'Back in Growth' 6 key trends, 15 new roles and 3 events Companies are moving out of survival mode and back into growth. It's cautious and measured growth, but they're now on the front foot with a more optimistic view of the future. Funding and the economy remain tight, so expect continued improvement not a rapid bounce back. On the hiring front, Growth & Company have been very busy with a record number of roles (see below). 6 key trends 💎 Growth vs marketing. The trend of replacing traditional brand marketing people with commercial product-focused growth leaders is accelerating. We're working with businesses to rebuild their marketing teams to deliver profit not brand awareness 😏 🏢 Back to the office. The office vs remote debate is over and hybrid won. Companies are asking teams to come together for 3 days in the office. If you're planning on leaving London, think carefully as it will limit your options 🔀 Freelancing (supply) boom. COVID and the tech slowdown has encouraged many to go freelance/fractional. Some are killing it, but many are under employed. It's a trend that will continue but demand will take time to match supply 👑 Creative is King! As Meta becomes more creative focused, most businesses are under-investing in performance creative. We've helped companies dramatically improve their metrics through hiring more creative-focused marketing leaders 🏋♀️ Challenging mid hiring. Hiring juniors is tough. I spoke to a CMO who interviewed 60 people for 1 role. The time sink is huge. We use our 250 community members as a referral network to find the hidden gems ⬆ More senior hiring. We've seen a rise in VP/Director vs Head of roles as companies see the ROI of paying for experience. Spending an extra £20-40K/yr to bring in a safer pair of hands to control your £10M marketing budget, is a great investment 15 new roles (DM if interested in any of these role) CMO (B2B SaaS), c£150K Director of Growth (DTC scaleup), c£120K Head of Growth x3, c£90K Head of Retention (£100M rev scaleup), c£90K Head of Ecommerce (£100M rev scaleup), c£100K Head of Brand (B2C marketplace), c£90K Head of Performance/Paid Social Lead x3, c£70-80K Growth Lead, c£70K Retention Lead (DTC scaleup), c£70K SEO Manager/Lead (DTC scaleup), c£70K PPC Manager/Lead (DTC scaleup), c£70K 3 events 🥊 Non-traditional channels: how to beat Meta 📅 Wednesday 24th April, 12pm - virtual lunch & learn https://lnkd.in/eXrfav2C 🌼 Spring Growth & Company Community drinks with a fireside chat with community member Stephen Rapoport (founder of Pact Coffee, Crashpadder) 📅 Thursday 2nd May, 6.30pm. In-person ↗ Path to Head of Growth 📅 Tuesday 21st May, 1pm - virtual lunch & learn We'll be joined by 4 veteran Heads of Growth (Nicholas Rooney, Gemma Pearson, Emily Grossman and Michele Tropeano) sharing their career tips to b https://lnkd.in/ei5qJ_Gb

I'M MODERATING A PANEL. Sorry for shouting, I'm just really excited (and terrified at the same time). Cherrypick is hosting the next Growth & Company meetup next week. DM Joseph Fitzgibbon if you want to join us. We'll be hearing from: • Caspar Rose at Fresh Fitness Food who's built his startup by building a world class affiliate partnership model • the incredible Georgia Kerr over at Freddie's Flowers sharing insights about in person sales • an old friend Tristan Thomas, ex VP of Monzo Bank now (CEO of Packfleet) sharing stories about Community, Golden Tickets and much more. Together, we will stop giving Zuck all of our marketing spend 💥

If you missed it here are the 5 key takeaways on how creative is changing performance marketing ... and an invite to the webinar version! It was great to partner with Redrice Ventures to host a discussion on the changing role of creative, with Raphael Yarish, Nick Lawson and Tobias Green, and skillfully moderated by Nicola Anderson. The event was sold out so we're offering a bonus live webinar on April 9th for those that missed it. Sign up is here > https://lnkd.in/e4mvnVHe 5 key takeaways: 🖼 Better creative = wider reach. As AI takes over targeting, creative has become king. The better the creative the wider the reach and greater the scale. ⚙ Systematise creative. Build the marketing team around creative production and metrics on the amount of content and the win rate, and focus on improving both. 🏠 In-house. The days of the Meta media buying agency are over for many companies. Agencies can help get you up and running fast, but integrated in-house creative and performance teams will outperform when at scale. 🤖 AI is coming. Humans will still play a key role in shaping creative strategy, but expect much more iterations done by machines. AI tools are getting much better very quickly. ⚡ Rapid iteration. Focus on shortening the feedback loop to iterate on your winners. See you on the 9th April! #growthmarketing #performancemarketing #meta

🫶🏻 This year, I'd love to take a moment to celebrate and appreciate all the incredible women who have supported me in my personal and professional career. Thank you all for.... Helping me not feel like an imposter in the startup world: Daphne Tideman Claire Lewis Charlie Forshaw Kate Longworth Kirstin Coughtrie Laura Pomfret (Financielle) 💸 Holly Holland (Financielle) Rebeca García Becca Harvey Rachel Siner Lucy Woolfenden Rosie Hoggmascall Ann Daly Helping me navigate my early career with mentorship: Alice M. Chacon, MBA Catherine Metrycki Susan Davison Janice Ryder Helping me connect to a wonderful community: Dr. Jacqui Taylor Natasha Takhar Erica Isotta Surace Carmen Cheung Simran Mander Christy Nair Anneliese Niebauer Anna Blasiak Iryna Struk Allie Fitzgibbon Samantha Johnson Helping make every day meaningful: Natalie Leyne (CMktr) Catrinel White Charlotte Flowerdew Amber Mullins Tanvi B. Martina Sole ☝These are all outstanding women I appreciate and would like to share my gratitude for. They inspire me to have the conversations about what it's like to be a women in the workplace. 💡 While it is easy just to write a post and tag your friends, what I'd really encourage everyone to do is to have just one discussion about what we can do better to support and inspire inclusion? We had really great stories shared over dinner last night with the Growth & Company #WomenInGrowth crew- Olivia Stephenson, Samantha Johnson, Tina Z. and Philippa Ellis. Here are some thought starters of how to start the conversations: - What does it mean to be a women in the workforce? - What challenges have you encountered or seen happen? - What can we do differently moving forward? Who would you want to celebrate this #IWD24 and what conversations would you like to have with them? 🫶🏻 #InspireInclusion #iwd2024 #internationalwomensday

Two marketing lessons from one photo .... Firstly, to explain the photo, it's from outside a coffee shop that has an electric roller shutter. The channel is perfect as it targets a very hard to reach audience at exactly the moment when they desperately need the service. Lesson 1 Be where your customers make decisions. Don't be lazy and blindly rely on Google and Facebook. Think through your customers' jobs to be done and where you can show up in that journey. If you sell dog food for example, decisions on what to feed a pet are made at the vet, at the breeder and in the supermarket - so that's where you need to be. Lesson 2 Innovate fast! Graze was one of the first companies to use referrals as a channel, now everyone does it. It still works, but much less well than before. Companies need to innovate fast and build their team around moving quickly - access to data, understanding the customer, having a culture of taking calculated risks, having spare time away from the core. Founders, if you want to wean yourself off Meta, Google or a sales team, we're running an event on this topic later this month. We have a few spots left so send me a DM

References: are they a waste of time? ❤️ Don't all candidates just give you someone who loves them? 🎓 Does it really teach you about the skills they have? ✅ Haven’t you already made the decision before you speak to them? I think they still have a place in the process - for two reasons: 1. Who they give tells you a lot. If they didn’t give previous bosses then that requires digging into. 2. They are great at helping you get the best out of your new employee. Instead of using them to make a decision on a candidate, use them after you have decided to hire them to help you set them up for success. Ask previous managers for their tips. What do you think? How have you seen references used effectively?

We declined more roles in Jan than we took on … why and what did we recommend instead? Growth & Company was born out of frustration with a lack of expert advice on hiring, and the chaos it creates for founders, investors and candidates. Many roles are wrongly scoped. Many shouldn’t even exist in the first place. It’s very hard to turn down work when you have salaries to pay, but it's the right thing to do. We're in the long game. Here are a few examples: ❌ Hiring roles they don’t need… Client: Marketplace Scaleup What they wanted: VP Growth Context: We advised them on their team structure and saw too much overlap with their General Managers What we recommended: Don’t hire Fee: £0 Client: Marketplace Scaleup What they wanted: Chief Revenue Officer Context: Sales have slowed but we didn’t assess that the Head of Sales was at fault - the issues are more complex, and we’re supporting them to improve their customer journey What we recommended: Don’t hire Fee: £0 ⏫ Overscoping roles… Client: DTC Startup What they wanted: Chief Commercial Officer Context: The role was too big for a pre-rev startup. They need sales not strategy presentations What we recommended: Hire a more junior and hands-on person Fee: £0 (they didn’t take our advice!) Client: DTC Startup What they wanted: Data Scientist Context: Their data is in a mess but jumping to hire a Data Scientist is an expensive solution What we recommended: Bring in short-term fractional support Fee: significantly reduced 💔 Being the wrong partner… Client: B2C App What they wanted: Head of Growth Context: We’re not in the ‘throw CVs and hope one sticks’ game. We didn’t get enough buy-in from the CEO to ensure the role is properly scoped, consistent with the strategy and that the strategy makes sense What we recommended: Use a traditional recruiter Fee: £0 Founders, investors, leadership teams - if you want some impartial and non-sales advice then please reach out. We’ll give you our honest opinion and keep playing the long game. Candidates, if you’re interested in the roles we did accept, then reach out! We're hiring for roles across the growth spectrum, from VP to Manager, Fractional and Permanent. #growthmarketing #hiring