Unlocking Growth: The 5 Levers and Beyond

Dive into the critical but often under-utilized growth levers that scaling startups need to prioritize, beyond just acquisition. You’ll walk away with actionable strategies to improve activation, retention, monetization, and team efficiency, ensuring sustainable and efficient growth.

• What are the top 5 growth levers for scaling startups, and why do most founders focus too narrowly on just one or two?
• How can you optimize under-prioritized areas like monetization and activation to drive compounding growth?
• What operational and team structures best support sustainable scaling without burning out your team?

"I’m Asia Orangio, CEO of DemandMaven, and I help scaling startups unlock efficient, repeatable growth by focusing on the levers that actually move the needle."

Key Growth Levers Discussed

Activation

• Definition: Actions new users take within a product that correlate with continuing as paying customers. For freemium, this includes trial-to-paid conversions.
• Typical activation rates:
  • Average/median for SaaS: around 30-36%.
  • Sub-$1M ARR companies: median 14-15%.
  • $1M+ ARR: median ~33%.
• Activation is often below 30%, representing a major growth opportunity.
• Product analytics (Amplitude, Mixpanel) can be used to track new user retention and identify high-value activation actions.
• Improving activation reduces pressure on acquisition, which is expensive and competitive.

Actionable Steps:

• Define an explicit activation metric and timeframe.
• Audit and simplify onboarding and activation flows, focusing on high-retention product features.
• Prioritize changes in the product to visually and functionally guide users toward these key actions.

Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

• NRR measures how much recurring revenue is retained from existing customers over time (including expansions and churn).
• Healthy NRR benchmarks:
  • Minimum 80% at 12 months for steady growth.
  • 100%+ NRR is ideal for rapid growth and momentum.
• Poor NRR leads to a "leaky funnel," requiring excessive acquisition to maintain growth.

Common causes of poor NRR:

• Poor product prioritization failing to sustain customer value.
• Go-to-market misalignment causing acquisition of low-fit customers.
• Suboptimal pricing structures restricting sustained value and expansion.

Strategies to Improve NRR:

• Audit pricing and monetization to ensure they drive retention and expansion.
• Segment customers to understand retention by cohort/fit.
• Deeply analyze product discovery and feature prioritization to build sustainable customer value.

Monetization (Pricing)

• Pricing changes can dramatically impact growth and retention. Simply doubling prices often drives growth but is not enough for long-term sustainability.
• Example: Work with Go Reminders to improve monetization by shifting from rigid, plan-based pricing to a sliding scale model based on number of appointments, leading to tripled annual growth and improved activation.
• Plan differentiation and clear value communication are crucial.
• Pricing should be revisited at least yearly for adjustments as product and customer needs evolve.

Recommended Actions:

• Conduct pricing interviews with prospects and customers to gather feedback and understand price sensitivity (e.g., Van Westendorp analysis).
• Reevaluate value metrics regularly to ensure alignment with customer behavior and product use.

Product

• Product is the core driver of growth and sustainability.
• Common mistake: building only what customers explicitly ask for. Instead, focus on:
  • Observing actual customer behavior and frustrations.
  • Asking deeper questions about what users do and desire.
  • Innovating around how users actually use the product, not just what they say they want.
• Case study: SparkToro had to rebuild after losing Twitter integration. Through extensive UX and Jobs-to-be-Done research, they discovered customers used the product differently than expected, leading to new feature development and the best growth months in two years.

Operations

• Operational excellence impacts growth by ensuring the right people, process, and metrics are in place.
• Key focus areas:
  • Team audit: Are the right people in the right roles with necessary skills?
  • KPI audit: Track the right leading indicators to focus efforts effectively.
  • Process review: Meeting cadence, communication channels, and execution efficiency.
• Shifts in team structure or process can dramatically improve growth without additional resources.

Additional Resources

• Asia’s podcast: In Demand (co-hosted with Kim Talarczyk)
• Recommended reading: Demand Side Sales by Bob Moesta
• Presentation slide deck can be found here.