20Growth: Top Five Growth Lessons Scaling Stitchfix to IPO, How to Master the Art of Paid Marketing, Why CAC/LTV is a BS Metric & How To Use Payback Period as an Alternative to CAC/LTV with Mike Duboe, Partner @ Greylock
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 693 Ratings
🗓️ 15 February 2023
⏱️ 53 minutes
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Summary
Mike Duboe is a Partner @ Greylock where he sits on the board of Builder, Inventa, Novi, Pepper, Postscript. Prior to entering the world of venture, Mike was the first in-house growth hire at Stitch Fix, where he built and led the Growth organization helping take the company through to their IPO. Before Stitchfix, Mike was the first growth hire at Tilt, where he built and oversaw multiple teams, including analytics, marketing, community, and growth product. He also served on YC's growth advisory council and was a growth lecturer at Reforge.
In Today's Episode with Mike Duboe We Discuss:
1.) Entry into the World of Growth:
- How Mike made his way from consulting at Bain to leading the growth team for Stitchfix?
- What did Mike believe about growth 5 years ago that he no longer believes?
- What does Mike know now that he wishes he had known when he entered the world of growth?
2.) When and Who To Hire:
- How does Mike define the term "growth team"? What is their core role and responsibility?
- Should the first growth hire be a senior growth lead or a more junior analytical lead?
- What data foundations should founders have in place prior to their growth hire joining?
- What are the most common ways founders fail to prepare for their first growth hires joining?
- When does Mike believe is the right and crucial time for growth hires to be made?
- Should these growth hires join existing teams or be put in standalone "growth teams"?
3.) The Hiring Process: How to Detect and Win the Best:
- How should founders structure the interview process for their first growth hires?
- What are the best questions to ask to reveal the quality of a potential growth hire?
- What are the right case studies and tests to do to assertain their quality?
- What are the different levels of comp package for different growth execs?
- What are the single biggest mistakes founders make in the hiring process?
4.) Mastering Paid Marketing: Lessons from Stitchfix:
- Why is CAC/LTV a BS metric? What should be used instead?
- When is the right time to start really engaging with paid marketing?
- How should marketing and growth teams determine budget on a per channel basis?
- How much is the right mix between paid vs organic?
- What are Mike's biggest lessons from making paid work so well at Stitchfix?
- What are the single biggest mistakes Mike sees founders make today with paid marketing?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | First is experiment one-pagers. So anyone could submit an experiment idea, but we built this very |
| 0:04.8 | simple one-pager framework that included an objective, hypothesis you're testing, the design or |
| 0:10.3 | resources required to execute the experiment timeline, and then what success quantifiably looks like. |
| 0:16.1 | And then finally, the next steps that one takes if the experiment fails or succeeds. |
| 0:20.0 | This is 20 Growth with me, Harry Stebbings. |
| 0:22.1 | Now, this is the monthly show where we sit down with the best growth leaders |
| 0:25.2 | to reveal their tips, tactics and strategies to scaling the best growth themes today. |
| 0:29.9 | And I'm so thrilled today to be joined by Mike Dubot. |
| 0:32.5 | Mike recently joined me on the dark side and is now a venture investor as a partner at Greylock. But prior to entering |
| 0:38.0 | the world of venture, Mike was the first in-house growth hire at Stitchfix, where he built and led |
| 0:42.8 | the growth organization, helping take the company through to their IPO. And before Stitchfix, |
| 0:47.7 | Mike was the first growth hire at Tilt, where he built and oversaw multiple teams, including |
| 0:52.5 | analytics, marketing, community and growth product. |
| 0:55.7 | He's also served on YC's Growth Advisory Council and was a growth lecturer at Reforge. |
| 1:00.4 | But before we dive into the show today, I need your help. |
| 1:03.3 | I need your input on the 20 VC Mero board, as I'm booking new guests that we should feature on the show in 2023. |
| 1:09.7 | Now, this is the only way to make suggestions. |
| 1:12.2 | Head on over to mero.com forward slash two zero VC and leave your suggestions with digital sticky |
| 1:18.1 | notes or comments. That's mero.com forward slash two zero VC and mero actually sponsored this episode. |
| 1:24.6 | For those of you that have not used it before, it's this incredible tool |
| 1:27.8 | that I think is truly game-changing. Just us to ask the 1 million plus people who sign up for |
| 1:32.7 | Mero every month, it's a visual collaboration platform packed with the right tools, tech and |
... |
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