Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
OK, so you've probably heard every growth guru talking about "growth engines" as the holy grail of startup success. Build a growth engine, they say, and you'll have exponential, self-sustaining growth that compounds over time.
Here's the thing - I've spent years implementing these so-called growth engines for SaaS clients, and most of them are just fancy names for basic marketing tactics. The real breakthrough came when I realized we were asking the wrong question entirely.
Instead of "How do we build a growth engine?" the question should be: "How do we build a distribution system that actually gets our product in front of people?"
Through working with dozens of B2B SaaS startups and ecommerce stores, I discovered that distribution beats product quality every single time. You can have the most elegant "growth loop" on paper, but if nobody knows you exist, it's worthless.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why most "growth engines" are actually just expensive acquisition funnels
The real difference between growth tactics and distribution strategy
How I helped clients shift from chasing viral loops to building actual distribution
A framework that works whether you're B2B SaaS or ecommerce
Why focusing on distribution first led to more sustainable growth than any "engine" ever did
Industry Reality
What every startup founder keeps hearing about growth engines
Walk into any startup accelerator or read any growth marketing blog, and you'll hear the same gospel repeated everywhere: you need to build a "growth engine." Here's what the industry typically recommends:
The Standard Growth Engine Playbook:
Viral Loops: Users invite other users, creating exponential growth
Product-Led Growth: The product itself drives acquisition through amazing user experience
Content Marketing Engines: Create content that ranks and brings organic traffic forever
Referral Programs: Incentivize existing users to bring new ones
Network Effects: The product gets more valuable as more people use it
The promise is always the same: build it once, watch it compound forever. Set up the right systems, optimize the metrics, and you'll have predictable, scalable growth that doesn't require constant feeding.
This conventional wisdom exists because it sounds scalable and systematic - exactly what founders and investors want to hear. It gives the illusion of control and predictability in an inherently unpredictable market.
But here's where it falls apart in practice: most "growth engines" are just acquisition tactics dressed up with fancy names. They still require constant attention, optimization, and - most importantly - they assume people can actually find and try your product in the first place.
The real issue? These frameworks focus on optimizing what happens after someone discovers you, not on the fundamental challenge of getting discovered at all. That's a distribution problem, not a growth engine problem.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The wake-up call came when I was working with a B2B SaaS client who had built what looked like the perfect "growth engine" on paper. They had referral incentives, product-led onboarding, content that ranked well, and even some network effects built into their platform.
The metrics looked decent in their dashboard - good conversion rates, solid retention, users were even referring others. But growth was still painfully slow. Why? Because their beautifully optimized "engine" was processing maybe 100 new visitors per month.
It was like having a Ferrari engine in a car with no wheels. All that optimization was meaningless without distribution.
This client had fallen into the classic trap: they'd spent months perfecting their user journey and growth mechanics while completely ignoring the fact that nobody knew they existed. Their content ranked for keywords with 50 monthly searches. Their referral program had great conversion rates but was only generating 2-3 referrals per month. Their product was genuinely better than competitors, but competitors were getting 10x more visibility.
That's when I realized we were solving the wrong problem entirely. The issue wasn't their growth engine - it was their distribution strategy. Or rather, their complete lack of one.
We had built a beautiful store in an empty mall, to use my favorite analogy. All the conversion optimization in the world doesn't matter if there's no foot traffic.
This experience taught me that distribution is the actual growth engine. Everything else - the viral loops, the referral programs, the perfect onboarding - these are just optimization tactics that make your distribution more efficient.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
So here's what we did instead of chasing the next growth hack or optimizing conversion funnels. We completely flipped the approach and started with distribution first, optimization second.
Step 1: Distribution Channel Mapping
Instead of building growth loops, we mapped out every possible channel where our ideal customers already spend time. For this B2B SaaS client, that meant industry publications, LinkedIn, specific Slack communities, and even niche podcast audiences.
The key insight: your customers aren't waiting for you to build a growth engine. They're already somewhere else. Our job was to figure out where and how to reach them there.
Step 2: Content as Distribution, Not SEO
We shifted the entire content strategy. Instead of creating blog posts optimized for search volume, we created content specifically designed to get shared in the communities where our customers lived.
This meant writing for humans first, search engines second. Counter-intuitive? Maybe. Effective? Absolutely. Content that gets shared in industry Slack channels is worth more than content that ranks #3 for a low-volume keyword.
Step 3: Personal Branding as Distribution Infrastructure
Here's something most growth frameworks ignore: people buy from people, especially in B2B. We invested heavily in the founder's personal brand on LinkedIn, not as a vanity play, but as a distribution mechanism.
Every piece of content, every interaction, every comment became a way to get the product in front of new people. Personal branding isn't marketing fluff - it's distribution infrastructure.
Step 4: Partnership Distribution
Instead of hoping for viral growth, we built systematic partnership channels. Other SaaS tools that served the same audience but weren't competitors became distribution partners through integrations, co-marketing, and cross-promotion.
This isn't revolutionary stuff, but it works because it's focused on reaching people where they already are, not waiting for them to find you.
The Results Framework
We measured success differently too. Instead of tracking "growth engine metrics" like viral coefficient or referral rates, we focused on distribution metrics: reach, frequency, and conversion across channels.
The magic happened when these distribution channels started working together. Content shared in communities drove LinkedIn followers. LinkedIn posts drove partnership conversations. Partnerships drove more content opportunities. That's when we had a real growth system - not because we built fancy loops, but because we built systematic distribution.
Channel Mapping
Map every place your ideal customers already spend time - don't wait for them to find you organically
Content Distribution
Create content designed for sharing in specific communities, not just search ranking
Personal Infrastructure
Treat founder personal branding as distribution infrastructure, especially for B2B products
Partnership Networks
Build systematic partnerships with complementary tools serving the same audience
Within 6 months of implementing this distribution-first approach, the results spoke for themselves:
Distribution Metrics:
Monthly website visitors increased from ~500 to 3,000+
LinkedIn followers grew from 200 to 2,500 with consistent engagement
Content shares in industry communities increased 10x
Partnership pipeline generated 40% of new leads
But here's what really mattered: now their "growth engine" actually had fuel. Those referral programs and viral mechanics that were barely working before suddenly became effective because there were enough users flowing through the system.
The unexpected outcome? We didn't need to build complex growth loops at all. Good distribution created its own momentum. When you're consistently visible in the right places, word-of-mouth happens naturally. When you're building genuine relationships through partnerships and personal branding, referrals happen organically.
Most importantly, this approach was sustainable. Unlike paid ads that die when you stop spending, or viral content that's impossible to predict, systematic distribution keeps working as long as you keep showing up.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons learned from shifting away from "growth engine" thinking toward distribution strategy:
Lesson 1: Distribution is the real growth engine. Everything else is just optimization on top of distribution. Start there, optimize later.
Lesson 2: Your customers aren't waiting for you. They're already somewhere else, living their lives, consuming content, and making decisions. Your job is to be present in those spaces.
Lesson 3: Consistency beats cleverness. Showing up regularly in the right places works better than trying to engineer viral moments.
Lesson 4: People buy from people. Especially in B2B, personal relationships and trust matter more than perfect product mechanics.
Lesson 5: Partnerships are underrated. Other businesses already have the audience you want to reach. Figure out how to add value to their customers.
Lesson 6: Content is a distribution mechanism first, SEO play second. Create for humans in specific communities, not for search algorithms.
What I'd do differently: I'd start with distribution mapping from day one, not after months of optimizing conversion funnels. The earlier you solve distribution, the more effective everything else becomes.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups looking to implement this approach:
Map industry communities where your ICP already engages
Invest in founder personal branding on LinkedIn early
Create content for sharing, not just ranking
Build systematic partnership channels with complementary tools
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores implementing distribution-first strategy:
Identify where your target customers discover new products
Focus on social proof and community building over viral mechanics
Leverage influencer and affiliate partnerships for consistent reach
Optimize for word-of-mouth through exceptional customer experience