Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Six months ago, I was that consultant everyone hates - the one obsessed with "growth hacks" and "viral loops." I'd walk into client meetings with Pinterest-worthy infographics about "10X growth strategies" and "hockey stick metrics." The reality? Most of my clients were still struggling to get their first 100 customers.
Then I worked with a B2B startup that was drowning in their own "growth hacking" attempts. They'd tried everything - referral programs, gamification, social media contests, influencer partnerships. Sound familiar? Their founder was frustrated because despite all the "innovative" tactics, they couldn't reliably generate leads.
That's when I discovered the difference between growth hacking and traction. And honestly? It changed how I approach every single client project now.
Here's what you'll learn from my experience:
Why growth hacking is actually hurting most startups
The systematic approach to traction that actually works
How I helped a client go from random tactics to predictable growth
The framework I now use with every startup
When growth hacking actually makes sense (spoiler: it's rare)
This isn't another "growth hack" list. This is about building something sustainable. Let's dig into what I learned the hard way.
The Problem
Why everyone's obsessed with growth hacking
Growth hacking became the startup world's favorite buzzword for good reason. The stories are intoxicating - Dropbox's referral program, Airbnb's Craigslist integration, Hotmail's email signatures. Every founder dreams of finding that one magical tactic that will 10X their growth overnight.
The industry promotes this thinking everywhere:
"Find the one growth hack" - The promise that there's a silver bullet waiting to be discovered
"Think outside the box" - Encouraging creative, unconventional tactics over proven fundamentals
"Viral is everything" - The obsession with exponential, viral growth metrics
"Move fast and break things" - Prioritizing speed over systematic testing
"Growth at all costs" - Metrics that look good but don't translate to sustainable business
This mentality exists because the success stories are so compelling. When someone tells you Hotmail grew to 12 million users in 18 months just by adding "Get your free email at Hotmail" to every outgoing message, it sounds like magic.
The problem? For every Hotmail, there are thousands of startups that tried similar "hacks" and failed miserably. But we don't hear those stories. We only hear about the outliers, and that creates a massive survivorship bias.
Most startups following this approach end up in what I call "growth hack purgatory" - constantly trying new tactics, measuring vanity metrics, but never building a sustainable foundation for growth. They're optimizing for the wrong things entirely.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
My wake-up call came when I was working with a B2B startup whose founder was convinced they needed to "think outside the box." They'd raised a decent seed round and the pressure was on to show rapid growth.
When I first met with them, their approach was textbook growth hacking. They'd tried:
A referral program with aggressive incentives
Gamified onboarding with badges and points
Influencer partnerships on LinkedIn
Content marketing focused on viral potential
Multiple social media contests
The results? They had some flashy numbers - viral coefficient, social media engagement, referral signups. But their core business metrics were terrible. Customer acquisition cost was through the roof, lifetime value was low, and most importantly, they couldn't predict or control their growth.
The founder was frustrated because they were doing everything the "growth hacking" playbooks recommended, but it wasn't translating to sustainable business growth. They were getting lots of attention but very few paying customers.
That's when I realized we were approaching this completely wrong. Instead of looking for clever hacks, we needed to focus on systematic traction. We needed to find channels that could reliably and predictably deliver qualified customers.
I started reading about the Bullseye Framework from Gabriel Weinberg's "Traction" book, and everything clicked. We weren't trying to hack growth - we were trying to build a traction engine.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Here's the systematic approach I developed after that project - what I now call the "Traction-First Framework":
Phase 1: Channel Mapping (Week 1)
Instead of brainstorming "creative" tactics, we mapped out all 19 possible traction channels systematically. This includes everything from content marketing and SEO to direct sales and trade shows. The goal isn't to be creative - it's to be comprehensive.
Phase 2: The Three-Channel Test (Weeks 2-8)
Here's where most people go wrong - they try to test too many channels at once. Instead, we pick exactly three channels that seem most promising for their specific business model and customer base. We spend 2 weeks setting up proper tracking, then run focused 2-week tests on each channel.
Phase 3: Double-Down Strategy (Weeks 9-16)
Once we identify the winning channel (the one with the best unit economics and scalability), we go all-in. No more spreading attention across multiple tactics. We focus 80% of our effort on optimizing the winning channel until we can predictably generate customers.
Phase 4: The Second Channel (Weeks 17+)
Only after we've mastered one channel do we add a second one. This prevents the scattered approach that kills most growth efforts.
For that B2B startup, we discovered that direct LinkedIn outreach was their winning channel. Not sexy, not viral, but it worked. We could predict that 100 targeted LinkedIn messages would result in 15 conversations, 3 demos, and 1 customer. That's traction.
Once we had that dialed in, we added content marketing as a second channel to feed warm leads into the LinkedIn funnel. The combination was powerful because it was predictable.
Channel Focus
Pick 3 channels max. Test systematically. Most startups fail because they spread too thin across 10+ tactics instead of mastering one channel first.
Unit Economics
Every channel must have clear cost-per-acquisition and lifetime value metrics. If you can't predict ROI, it's not traction - it's gambling.
Systematic Testing
2 weeks setup, 2 weeks per channel test, then double-down. No gut feelings, no "this should work" - only data-driven decisions.
Sustainable Growth
Traction means you can turn a dial and get more customers. Growth hacking often means crossing your fingers and hoping for viral magic.
The results were dramatic, but not in the way you'd expect from a "growth hack" case study:
Predictable Growth: Instead of random spikes, they achieved steady 15% month-over-month growth. Boring? Maybe. Sustainable? Absolutely.
Improved Unit Economics: Customer acquisition cost dropped from $450 to $180, while lifetime value increased because we were attracting better-fit customers through the right channels.
Reduced Stress: The founder stopped worrying about finding the next big growth hack. They had a system that worked, and they could focus on product development instead of constantly experimenting with new tactics.
Investor Confidence: When fundraising time came, they could show investors a clear, repeatable growth engine instead of hoping for viral moments.
The most important result? They could predict their growth. If they needed 100 new customers next quarter, they knew exactly how much to invest in LinkedIn outreach and content creation to hit that target.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons I learned from shifting from growth hacking to traction thinking:
Boring channels often win: The most effective channels are usually the unsexy ones - direct sales, cold email, content marketing. Don't chase shiny tactics.
Unit economics > viral metrics: A channel that brings 10 customers at $50 CAC beats one that brings 1000 visitors with no conversions.
One channel mastery beats many channel mediocrity: Most successful companies dominate 1-2 channels, not 10.
Traction comes before product: Don't perfect your product - find a way to consistently acquire customers, then optimize the product based on real feedback.
Growth hacking works for optimization, not discovery: Once you have traction, then you can experiment with creative tactics to optimize your proven channels.
Patience pays off: Building real traction takes 3-6 months. Growth hacks promise instant results but rarely deliver sustainable growth.
Systems beat creativity: A systematic approach to channel testing beats creative brainstorming every time.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups, here's your traction-first implementation plan:
Start with direct outreach (LinkedIn, cold email) for immediate feedback
Build content marketing for long-term organic growth
Track cost-per-trial and trial-to-paid conversion, not just signups
Use the Bullseye Framework for systematic channel testing
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores, focus on these traction fundamentals:
Master one paid channel (Facebook or Google) before expanding
Build email list through simple lead magnets, not complex viral campaigns
Focus on customer lifetime value and repeat purchase rate
Use systematic A/B testing for conversion optimization