Vaibhav Sahgal: How We Scaled Reddit to 55M Users; Lessons from Zynga | 20VC #942

Vaibhav Sahgal is VP of Consumer Product @ Reddit where he has been for close to 5 years. Prior to his leading consumer product, Vaibhav spent 3 years as Head of Growth at Reddit. Before Reddit, Vaibhav spent an incredible 8 years at Zynga across different roles including Director of Product and GM for “Words with Friends”. ---------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:30 Vaibhav's Background 3:28 Vaibhav's Biggest Takeaway from Time at Zynga 4:23 How to understand your customers 7:34 How to Think about Channel Diversification 9:36 How do you define growth? 11:50 Difference between value creation and value connection 12:59 When is the right time to hire a Growth Leader? 17:43 Biggest Mistake when Building a Team 21:40 Interviewing for Growth 25:45 How to Approach Prioritization 28:27 Do you use case studies? 29:55 How to Think about Equity Compensation 32:00 How to Onboard 35:15 How to resource your head of growth properly 37:23 What painful experience taught you the most? 40:13 How to maintain moral when your floundering 41:55 How do you validate ideas? 43:45 How do you structure product reviews? 47:00 How has angel investing changed your mindset? 48:04 Vaibhav's Worst Investment 49:20 What is the future of social media? 50:50 How could Reddit mess up? 52:28 What growth tactics have died and which have not changed? 53:40 What’s biggest mistake founders make when hiring their growth team? 55:12 Which company has the most impresive growth strategy? ---------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Vaibhav Sahgal We Discuss: 1.) Entry into Product + Growth: How did Vaibhav come to lead some of the best growth orgs in the world at both Reddit and Zynga? What are 1-2 of Vaibhav’s biggest takeaways from working with Mark Pincus @ Zynga? What is the most painful growth lesson that Vaibhav learned that he is also pleased to have learned? 2.) WTF Really is “Growth”: How does Vaibhav define growth today? What is it not? How does Vaibhav fundamentally differentiate between value connection and value creation? Is growth an art or a science? What tactics have died a death? What remain stronger than ever? 3.) Hiring Your Growth Team: How does Vaibhav advise founders on when is the right time to hire your first growth professionals? Where should they sit within the org? In product? In marketing? Standalone growth team? What are the biggest mistakes Vaibhav sees founders make when hiring their first growth hires? 4.) The Interview Process: How does Vaibhav structure the interview process for all new growth hires? What are the steps? What are the must-ask questions when hiring for growth? What are good answers? How can founders use case studies and data to determine the quality of a growth candidate? 5.) The Onboarding and Integration: What is the optimal onboarding process for all new growth hires? What are signs in the first 3 days that a growth hire will vs will not work out? What can leaders do to ensure growth hires are integrated with the rest of the teams? What are the biggest mistakes founders make when onboarding growth hires? ---------------------------------- Subscribe to the Podcast: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/vaibhav-sahgal/ Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok ---------------------------------- #VaibhavSahgal #HarryStebbings #20VC #redditstories #reddit #productgrowth #zyngagames #20GROWTH