The Myth of Exponential Growth

When Jason Cohen writes, it’s worth reading and we love his latest long form blog post, The Myth of Exponential Growth.

Jason explains why almost no company has exponential growth and that what people term exponential growth is in fact quadratic or logistic growth. Not just a matter of terms though. Jason argues understanding a growth model is important for predicting growth and understanding the core drivers of growth enables you to take smarter actions to create growth in your company.

Jason breaks down the growth of companies including Hubspot, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Pinterest and more, demonstrating that their growth has come from a series of campaigns or product launches, each of which follows a fairly predictable pattern…

Most growth comes from layered marketing campaigns – a series of overlapping activities that combine to drive growth over time.

The full article, The Myth of Exponential Growth, is well worth your time, not just because of the analysis of other campaigns, but because Jason outlines his thoughts on how you should model your own growth and how it should inform your marketing activity.

(We won’t steal the highlights here, you should see it on his blog).

We do want to share three great talks he has done on marketing that will make you smarter, (and a bonus talk from Gail Goodman about seeking silver bullets that never grows old)…

Some of Jason Cohen‘s Best BoS Talks on Marketing

Jason’s talks at Business of Software have often challenged conventional wisdom with humor, insight and data. though.

Here’s three of our favorite talks by Jason Cohen on marketing…

The links go to the talk page that also contains slides, transcripts and notes where available or you can just click on the video.

Working Out When to Break the Rules and Ignore Advice

• A talk on the early days of Smart Bear and why you should always understand the prejudice and experience of people who offer you advice.

Creating ‘Naked Businesses’

• Why it’s better to be honest and open than pretend you or your company are like all the others.

Why data, statistics and numbers will make you do the wrong thing

• A masterclass in critical thinking for marketeers.

Gail Goodman: The Long Slow SaaS Ramp of Death

• Brilliant on finding the magic formula for growth and much more.