Adam Grenier: The Inside Story to Uber’s Hypergrowth; How We Spent $1B/mo in China | E989

Adam Grenier is an OG of the growth world. His first role in growth, was none other than Uber where he was Head of Growth Marketing and Innovation building the global marketing growth infrastructure and team from the ground up. He then enjoyed successful spells at Lambda School and Masterclass as VP Growth and VP of Marketing, respectively. If that was not enough, Adam is also a prolific angel having made investments in Superhuman, Table22, and FitXR to name a few. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Intro :43 Adam’s Origin Story 3:01 Biggest Challenge at Hotel Tonight 4:27 Biggest Challenge at Uber 5:28 Biggest Challenge at Lamda 6:40 Biggest Challenge at MasterClass 7:41 How MasterClass Acquires Customers 8:54 What is the role of Head of Growth? 12:11 Where does a Growth team fit within an org? 16:30 Hiring Tips for Growth 27:13 How to Choose a North Star Metric 31:49 Marketplaces: Fragmented vs Concentrated Supply 35:35 Failed Experiments at Uber 37:49 How to Market to Horizontal Customer Bases 42:16 How to Define a “Retained User” 45:26 When To Do Post-Mortems 47:54 Why Uber Employees Used Personal Credit Cards to Run FB Ads 50:19 The Right Ratio of Paid to Organic 52:09 How Uber Spent $1B/mo on Marketing 52:47 How DiDi Got Access to All Uber’s Data 55:16 Is CAC:LTV a BS metric? 58:08 How has investing changed your mindset towards Growth? 59:32 Quick-Fire Round ----------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Adam Grenier We Discuss: 1.) Entry into the World of Growth with Uber: How did Adam make his way into the world of growth with Uber and Ed Baker? What are the single biggest takeaways from his time at Uber, Lambda and Masterclass? What does Adam know now that he wishes he had known when he started in growth? 2.) Growth: What it is? Why You Do Not Need a Team for it? How does Adam define the term “growth” today? What is the role of “Head of Growth”? Why does Adam believe that you do not need a growth team? How can leaders infuse growth principles, mindsets and metrics into existing teams? What are the single biggest mistakes founders make when thinking about growth?\ 3.) Hiring Growth Mindsets: How to Ask the Right Question: What are the clearest signs to Adam that someone has a growth mindset? What are the right questions to ask to see how they think? How does Adam use tests and case studies to determine the growth mindset of a person? What did Uber teach Adam about the best practices to hire for growth? 4.) Uber: Scaling a Monster and Spending $1BN on Ads: What are some of Adam’s biggest lessons from spending $1BN on advertising at Uber? Why at anytime were there 200 people paying for ads with their personal credit cards? Why does Adam believe China was “the wild-west”? How did all of their competitors in China have Uber data? How do growth mechanics, channels and disciplines compare between US vs China? -------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Adam Grenier on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AKGrenier Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com ---------------------------------------------- #AdamGrenier #Uber #HarryStebbings #20vc #growthmarketing