How to find & pull startup growth levers | Matt Lerner (Founder of SYSTM, Author of Growth Levers)

Matt Lerner is the Founder and CEO at SYSTM, a startup coaching consultancy that helps high-potential companies grow their business. Matt also authored the book “Growth Levers”, which shares his framework that's helped over 200 seed-stage startups grow as much as 100x. Previously, Matt was on the early growth team at PayPal, a partner at 500 Startups, and a guest lecturer at Stanford Business School. In today’s episode, we discuss: • Understanding the key drivers of startup success • Applying the Growth Lever framework • Several case studies • Customer-centric growth tactics • Adapting growth levers for different business models Referenced: • Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/ • Bold Commerce: https://boldcommerce.com/ • Calm: https://www.calm.com/ • Caribou: https://www.usecaribou.com/ • eBay: https://www.ebay.com/ • FATMAP: https://fatmap.com/ • Growth Levers and How to Find Them: https://www.systm.co/growth-levers-matt-lerner-book • PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ • Peter Karpas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterkarpas/ • Popsa: https://popsa.com/ • Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/ • Sonic Jobs: https://www.sonicjobs.com/ • SYSTM: https://www.systm.co/ Where to find Matt Lerner: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewlerner/ • Twitter/X: https://x.com/matthlerner Where to find Brett Berson: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson Where to find First Round Capital: • Website: https://firstround.com/ • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps: [00:00:00] Intro [00:03:11] The hidden truth about startup success [00:05:10] Popsa's journey: A case study in growth [00:07:31] Breaking down the growth lever framework [00:11:30] Understanding the customer's journey [00:14:14] The art of customer interviews [00:18:07] Unlocking growth through customer insights [00:24:23] The triple threat: Founder failure modes [00:27:32] The power of founder-led growth strategies [00:32:42] Unlocking growth bottlenecks [00:36:40] Timing and implementation of growth strategies [00:39:43] Founder red flags [00:41:32] Crafting effective growth experiments [00:43:14] Why customer mindset is the ultimate growth driver [00:46:19] The power law in business [00:48:59] Why startups don’t need paid marketing [00:50:47] Growth levers for sales-driven companies [00:53:43] Matt's own application of growth principles [00:55:39] Growth levers in B2B sales [00:57:05] Finding customer "locksmith moments" [01:04:08] The mentor who shaped Matt's thinking