EDITION No. 163
Wed, Oct 14, 2026

Referral

Turning users into a growth channel: virality, word-of-mouth, network effects, and referral loops.

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All referral posts

32 results · sorted by most read · showing 1–24

$300M in 11 Months: The Rise and Reckoning of Higgsfield AI

$300M in 11 Months: The Rise and Reckoning of Higgsfield AI

How Higgsfield AI hit $300M ARR in 11 months with multi-model aggregation, influencer distribution, and extreme shipping velocity, then faced a reputation crisis.

Teardown14 min read
How Midjourney Hit $500M ARR With Zero VC and Zero Marketing

How Midjourney Hit $500M ARR With Zero VC and Zero Marketing

How an 11-person team with zero VC and zero marketing budget built a $500M revenue machine on Discord.

Teardown13 min read
How Lovable Hit $100M ARR in 8 Months (Then $500M in 19)

How Lovable Hit $100M ARR in 8 Months (Then $500M in 19)

Launch to a $500M run rate in 19 months with 146 people. The engines behind it, and the cracks under it.

Teardown10 min read
How Gamma Turned a 95% Drop-Off into $100M ARR

How Gamma Turned a 95% Drop-Off into $100M ARR

How Gamma turned a 95% drop-off rate into $100M ARR and a $2.1B valuation with 50 employees, 5 growth strategies you can steal.

Teardown7 min read
How ElevenLabs Hit $330M ARR: The Three-Platform Flywheel That Conquered Enterprise AI

How ElevenLabs Hit $330M ARR: The Three-Platform Flywheel That Conquered Enterprise AI

The ElevenLabs GTM Playbook. How a PLG Voice Platform Conquered 41% of Fortune 500 Companies.

Teardown9 min read
From Near-Shutdown to $40 M ARR: How Bolt.new Hacked Its Growth

From Near-Shutdown to $40 M ARR: How Bolt.new Hacked Its Growth

Steal Bolt.new’s Growth Playbook.

Teardown20 min read
Loom Growth Teardown: Chrome Extension to $975M Exit

Loom Growth Teardown: Chrome Extension to $975M Exit

3 pivots, a COVID growth hack, 25M users at $2/year revenue, and a post-acquisition meltdown. The real story behind Loom's billion-dollar journey.

Teardown11 min read
How Figma Walked Away from $20 Billion and Built Something Worth More

How Figma Walked Away from $20 Billion and Built Something Worth More

From Thiel Fellowship dropout to $1B revenue, IPO, and the AI credit bet that could define the next decade of design.

Teardown8 min read
How Cursor AI Hacked Growth and Re-Wrote Growth Playbook for Dev-Tools!

How Cursor AI Hacked Growth and Re-Wrote Growth Playbook for Dev-Tools!

From Hack-Weekend Project to $200M ARR.

Teardown15 min read
How Anthropic and Claude.ai Hacked Growth: Can you Adopt anything From It?

How Anthropic and Claude.ai Hacked Growth: Can you Adopt anything From It?

From stealth to $60 B: the growth hacks behind Anthropic & Claude.ai that every AI startup can steal

Teardown12 min read
How a B2B Analytics Company Became the Coolest Brand in Dev Tools

How a B2B Analytics Company Became the Coolest Brand in Dev Tools

The PostHog Branding Playbook. 10 layers of brand that turned a product analytics startup into a cult. Every layer is stealable.

Playbook18 min read
How Replit Hacked Its Growth - Everything that you can adopt.

How Replit Hacked Its Growth - Everything that you can adopt.

The Growth Blueprint Behind Replit: Viral Loops, Community Flywheels, and Smart Monetization

Teardown40 min read
How Perplexity Hacked Its Growth: Everything You Can Adopt from It

How Perplexity Hacked Its Growth: Everything You Can Adopt from It

Unpacking the loops, product bets, and bold moves behind AI search’s fastest riser.

Teardown19 min read
The Tinder Growth Story: How Focusing on a Specific Market and Constant Innovation Led to Global Success

The Tinder Growth Story: How Focusing on a Specific Market and Constant Innovation Led to Global Success

Teardown4 min read
Agent-First GTM : How AI Agents Let Jacob Bank Run a One-Person GTM at Relay.app

Agent-First GTM : How AI Agents Let Jacob Bank Run a One-Person GTM at Relay.app

From zero users to 1,000 paying customers, (no ads, no growth team) just a founder, a swarm of AI agents, six-star support, and one high-leverage channel per stage.

Essay12 min read
What are Growth Loops and How to use them.

What are Growth Loops and How to use them.

And it's hiding in plain sight, used by companies like TikTok, Notion, and Reddit.

Playbook7 min read
Canva's Product Led Growth - All You Need to Know

Canva's Product Led Growth - All You Need to Know

The Canva's Playbook on How to Get Your Product to Sell Itself!

Teardown14 min read
Grammarly's Product-Led Growth: Deconstructing Their Tactics & How You Can Replicate Them

Grammarly's Product-Led Growth: Deconstructing Their Tactics & How You Can Replicate Them

The Ultimate Guide to Replicating Grammarly's PLG Success

Teardown14 min read
Slack's Product Led Growth - All You Need to Know

Slack's Product Led Growth - All You Need to Know

The Slack Playbook on How to Get Your Product to Sell Itself!

Teardown10 min read
How we used our Existing Users to Gain More Users?

How we used our Existing Users to Gain More Users?

with Real-World Examples & Implementation Tips...

Essay18 min read
Growth Funnels vs. Growth Loops

Growth Funnels vs. Growth Loops

Funnels leak. Loops compound. A practical guide to designing growth that feeds itself.

Essay6 min read
Calculator

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Would users recommend you, zero to ten

CalculatorOpen calculator
The PLG Framework: Your hands-on Guide to Product-Led Growth

The PLG Framework: Your hands-on Guide to Product-Led Growth

This guide will equip you with the tools, tactics, and insights you need to harness the power of your product to drive sustainable growth.

Playbook23 min read
Exploring the Rise of Product-Led Growth: A Brief History and Methodology

Exploring the Rise of Product-Led Growth: A Brief History and Methodology

Essay10 min read

A useful growth idea, every week.

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