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Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

How to grow a subscription business | Yuriy Timen (Grammarly, Canva, Airtable)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Lenny Rachitsky

Business, Technology, Entrepreneurship

5.01.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2022

⏱️ 68 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Yuriy Timen was Global Head of Marketing and Growth at Grammarly, and is now a full-time growth advisor, having worked with more than a dozen companies, including Canva, Airtable, Whimsical, Otter.ai, Oyster, Flo Health, and Clay. In today’s episode, Yuriy discusses the ever-changing world of growth, emerging growth tactics, and how to find your growth engine. You’ll learn the most effective strategies for driving user acquisition, how to balance and diversify organic and paid channels, when it’s time to change plans, how to vet new growth channel opportunities, and much more.—

Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-grow-a-subscription-business-yuriy-timen-grammarly-canva-airtable/#transcript

Where to find Yuriy Timen:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuriytimen/• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thetimenatorWhere to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:• Flatfile: https://www.flatfile.com/lenny• Modern Treasury: https://www.moderntreasury.com/• Eppo: https://www.geteppo.com/Referenced:• Casey Winters: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseywinters/• Elena Verna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenaverna/• Lyka Pet Food: https://lyka.com.au/• Ethan Smith’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanls/• Graphite: https://www.graphitehq.com/• Recast: https://getrecast.com/• Measured: https://www.measured.com/• INCRMNTAL: https://www.incrmntal.com/Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less: https://www.amazon.com/Essentialism-Disciplined-Pursuit-Greg-McKeown/dp/0804137382/ Man’s Search for Meaning: https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/0807014273/The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz: https://www.amazon.com/Splendid-Vile-Churchill-Family-Defiance/dp/0385348711/• The All-In Podcast: https://www.allinpodcast.co/Hustle: https://www.netflix.com/title/80242342• Mark Fiske at H.I.G.: https://higgrowth.com/team/mark-fiske/In this episode, we cover:[03:49] Yuriy’s background[09:46] Different paths to growth for subscription-based products[13:21] When to lean into virality[15:39] What are network effects?[16:32] SEO strategy and timeline: how long can it take to see results?[24:22] The shifting landscape of paid media[28:09] The return of media mix modeling[32:01] How can you tell if media spending equates to business results?[33:44] Don’t spread yourself too thin[36:01] How to tell if you’ve taken a strategy far enough[38:02] When to lean into a strategy that’s working vs. when to think about diversification[42:13] Is there a shift from growth to survival?[46:19] Two reasons to do paid media[56:45] Why you shouldn’t dismiss TikTok (and other channels you might be overlooking)[59:36] Lightning round!—Production and marketing: https://penname.co/



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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The only thing that's worse than a channel or a tactic that you tried not working.

0:06.7

The only thing that's worse than that is when you didn't give it the appropriate shot, right?

0:13.5

And you prematurely or erroneously concluded

0:18.3

that it doesn't work.

0:19.4

And it's remarkable how often you find that to be the case when I talk to companies.

0:24.0

Oh, YouTube?

0:26.0

We tried it.

0:27.0

It doesn't work.

0:28.0

I'm like, okay, can I see what you've tried?

0:30.0

And then you look at it and you're like,

0:32.0

oh, this thing was not designed to even have a shock networking from the get-go.

0:40.0

Eury Timmon is a full-time advisor to companies looking to figure out their growth strategy.

0:45.0

And he's worked with companies like Canva, Air Table, Otter, Wimsical, Hymns, Flow Health, and a dozen others.

0:52.0

I know a number of founders who have worked with

0:54.5

Yuri and they all tell me that he transformed how they think about their growth.

0:58.1

Before becoming an advisor, he spent nine years at Grammarly where he led growth and marketing and helped turn it into the household name that it is today

1:06.6

In our chat we get incredibly tactical about all of the ways that you can grow your product

1:11.6

including when and how to invest in virality,

1:14.4

SEO, and paid growth, what's changing across each of those channels, and the most common

1:19.6

failure modes for B to C startups. This is the most tactical and actionable

1:24.4

conversation I have had yet on how to grow your product, particularly a

1:28.2

subscription product, and I'm really excited for you to hear it. With that I bring you Yuri Timmon.

...

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