Andy Young, Serial Entrepreneur; UK Country Lead for Stripe; VP of Growth at Entrepreneur First on Growth Marketing for Startups

My guest today is Andy Young. Andy is a man of many talents or as he says “startups Swiss army knife”. Andy launched the UK and Ireland operations for Stripe and grew it from a handful of customers to major brands across the region. After that Andy served as advisor to several VCs, including at Entrepreneurs First where he was VP of Growth and Marketing. In this episode, I ask Andy to explain what growth marketing really means, how he did this at Facebook, and how entrepreneurs need to think about it and how they should hire for it.
  • [1:10] Andy’s background and how he came to be known as ‘the growth guy’. 
  • [3:20] What does ‘growth’ actually mean these days? What is expected of a person when hired as VP of growth?
  • [6:17] How should a growth team be structured in a startup for it to be set up for success?
  • [9:56] Typically, what are a growth team’s responsibilities? What KPIs would one use to measure this team’s success?
  • [13:54] When is the right time to hire someone that’s going to coordinate or lead this growth function? What should one look for when hiring such a person?
  • [21:38] Are there differences in how startups in Europe think about growth versus startups in other parts of the world?
  • [24:10] Is ‘growth’ a temporary function meant to fix something and leave? Or does it have the potential to build a sustainable growth loop?
  • [28:18] What is Facebook’s philosophy on growth and how did they structure the growth function within the organisation?
  • [31:55] Can someone be trained for growth marketing? What are your insights on recruiting a ‘growth person’? 
  • [35:21] - Advice on building a growth team and additional resources.

Resources on growth marketing


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