20Growth: Three Growth Lessons Scaling Whatsapp from 0-100M, Why You Should Hire a Head of Growth Sooner Than You Think & The Biggest Mistakes Founders Make When Hiring for Growth with Ryan Wiggins, Head of Growth @ Mercury

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The Twenty Minute VC

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4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2023

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ryan Wiggins is the VP of Growth and Analytics at Mercury where he oversees a Growth team and founded the Analytics function. Prior to this, Ryan built Growth teams at WhatsApp, where he helped grow WhatsApp Business from 0->100M users, Workplace, and Facebook Ads. If that was not enough, Ryan is also an active angel investor.

In Today's Episode with Ryan Wiggins We Discuss:

1.) From US Department of Commerce to Leading Growth Teams:

How Ryan made his initial foray into the world of growth with Facebook and Whatsapp?
What does Ryan know now that he wishes he had known when he made the entry into growth?
What advice does Ryan have for people who want to change their career but are not sure what they want to do?

2. ) Who and When: Building the Team:

Should we hire a Head of Growth or a more junior growth hire first?
What are the different profiles of growth hires? How do they change with business model?
When is the right time to hire your first growth hire?
What are the single biggest mistakes founders make on the timing of growth hires?

3.) How to Hire: The Process:

Structurally, what is the right way to hire for a growth team? What does the interview process look like? What do you want to get out of each meeting?
Should case studies be used, if so, should they be used for the company hiring or of the company where the candidate is from?
What does the comp package look like for different growth hires?
Who should be brought into the growth hiring process? What stage should they be involved?

4.) Onboarding: Setting Growth Up for Success:

What is the ideal first 30,60 and 90 days for new growth hires?
What can leaders do to ensure they are set up for the maximum chance of success?
What are three of the biggest red flags bad growth hires show in the first 30 days?
What are the biggest mistakes founders make in the onboarding process of growth hires?

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is 20 Growth with me, Harry Stebbings. This is the monthly show where we sit down with the best growth leaders to unpack their tips, tactics and strategies to scaling growth teams.
0:09.6	And today we're joined by Ryan Wiggins, VP of Growth and Analytics at Mercury, where he oversees a growth team and founded the analytics function.
0:17.4	Prior to this, Ryan built growth teams at WhatsApp, where he helped grow WhatsApp business
0:21.6	from zero to 100 million users, workplace and Facebook ads. And if that wasn't enough,
0:26.9	Ryan's also an extremely active angel investor. But before we dive into the show today,
0:31.1	and I'm really excited about this next sponsor, because a few of my portfolio companies use it
0:35.5	and love it. So do you know the impact of your marketing efforts?
0:39.3	It's more important this year than ever to know the impact.
0:41.3	Or how much you've spent so far this month and what you got as a result.
0:46.3	You're not alone in not knowing these answers.
0:48.3	Even though marketing is now all about the data, most companies still use manual spreadsheets for reporting and analysis. But if you want to
0:55.1	supercharge gross, spreadsheets just won't cut it. Funnel is the world's first and only marketing
1:00.6	data hub that takes all the manual effort out of data collection and lets you blend data from different
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1:11.8	writing a single line of code. I can hear your sigh of relief. That's why it's used by more than
1:16.3	2,000 of the world's top brands and media agencies, including Samsung, Adidas, Sony and
1:22.0	HavasMedia. Start your own free trial by visiting funnel.io slash 20VC. That's funnel.io slash 20VC.
1:31.2	And finally, we've all been there, but nothing is quite so depleting as the blinking cursor on an
1:36.2	empty page. Reminds me of law school, you're sitting there trying to come up with ad copy or
1:41.3	hypothetically a set of interview questions for a podcast you run,
1:45.0	obviously personal, and it's just staring back at you like a brick wall.
1:48.0	This moment of frustration amid growing content demands is probably why I'm hearing about Jasper non-stop these days.
	...

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