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Who should you know about when it comes to startup growth? Who should you be following for the latest in growth tips? Which growth experts regularly deliver valuable, actionable content to their followers? If these questions resonate, this article is for you.

We’ve looked far and wide to find the very best in startup growth. We’ve pulled a collection of well-known startup growth leaders who have been there and done it. Everyone in this list has been part of startups that have rapidly scaled. Some have synthesised their knowledge into well regarded books, some have built their own fractional CMO services others work purely as advisors.

Matt Lerner

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewlerner/ Website - https://www.systm.co/about-ma...

Selecting the right growth agency for your startup can make or break your startup. The wrong pick can lead to months of pain and wasted resources. The right selection can rocket your startup through the rungs of growth.

Over the years, I have run an agency and worked with dozens of agencies. I’ve pretty much seen it all when it comes to marketing service companies. It’s also something I get asked a lot when speaking with founders, how do you find the right agency for your startup?

So, I have written my key criteria every startup founder should consider when researching, speaking to and selecting their next growth agency.

Startup-specific experience When hiring a startup growth agency, make sure the agency specialises in startup growth. It ...

The value in our startup in an acquisition is usually a fraction of what we think it is — not a multiple.

That's not because our startups lack value; it's because we often misunderstand how that value actually gets calculated. In the past 30 years, I've spent a tremendous amount of time on both sides of these transactions, both as a Buyer (we bought 6 companies at Startups.com) and as a Seller (I've sold 5 of my own companies).

What I've learned is that Founders have really unrealistic expectations of how our startups are valued at the time of a sale. Frankly, it's not because we're not smart, it's because there simply isn't a lot of guidance on how startups get valued at all.

Don’t miss out on free credits from Google Cloud for Startups!...

Our Founder ambition is our greatest source of strength — but can also be our greatest enemy.

While being a startup Founder and having ambition are nearly synonymous, that doesn't mean the very same ambition that drives us to climb mountains can't also push us off a cliff!

I know this because I've lived it many times. I wasn't born the smartest, the most privileged, or the most talented. But I was born with two gifts — ambition and a willingness to work insanely hard. When you're starting from nothing, those gifts mean everything. Yet, what we tend to overlook is that those "gifts" have some major drawbacks that come back to haunt us later on.

Don’t miss out on free credits from Google Cloud for Startups! It’s your chance to leverage power...

The startup world is in a "Silent Recession" that no one is talking about, and it's a real problem.

Most of the Founders I speak to in private say the same thing — their business isn't going well. It's a combination of a weird economy, a Nuclear Winter in startup funding, and sky-high interest rates. Economists can tell us that the stock market is at an all-time high, unemployment is down, and inflation means people are spending too quickly. Yet if you talk to enough Founders honestly, they will tell a very different story.

If you're at a point where you're trying to understand why things aren't quite going as well as they should, let me shed some light on things my friends. We're in a Silent Recession among startups, where secretly they ar...

Everyone loves to glamorize the Founder who risked it all — until they are the Founder who lost it all.

Recently I was watching the History Channel series "The Toys that Made Us" with my kids, where they documented the inventors of toys from Barbie Dolls to Trivial Pursuit. Within the documentary are conveniently scripted scenes where actors dramatize key moments where the Founders "risked everything" to bet on their big dream, which of course, went on to become a huge hit.

When my daughter turned to me and asked if that's what it's really like - to risk everything to become successful — I turned to her and said, "Yes, if you're lazy." I said "lazy" because I didn't want to say "stupid" but when she's an adult, I'll be sure to add that part...

Most startup Founders never get rich — and it's 100% our own fault.

I'm not talking about not getting rich because our startup failed — that one is obvious. I'm talking about having a startup that actually worked and still not getting rich. And when I say "rich" I don't mean "Powerball Rich" I'm talking in most cases, making any money at all. As a whole, we tend to suck at making money for ourselves.

The reason for this is that the startup ethos is riddled with fallacies about how we should approach profit and wealth. We've constructed a narrative that glorifies sacrifice and risk while somehow completely overlooking common sense and profit.

Founders need a reality check. We need to remind ourselves that treading down the most dangerous pat...

There are a ton of jobs we can hire for — a "Founder" isn't one of them.

Nearly all of us, at some point, dream of replacing ourselves with someone else, ideally someone that's a big level up, so that we can take the pressure off of us and enjoy the good life. But over time most of us arrive at the same conclusion — back-filling the role of "Founder" is nearly impossible.

Why is it so hard? Clearly, there are more people out there substantially more qualified than we are to run our companies. Yet, time and time again, Founders try to recruit the "perfect replacement" only to find themselves right back in the leadership chair before they know it.

The answer lies in the fact that while we can hire capabilities beyond our own, there are a few ...

The most expensive decisions we will ever make as a Founder all come at the beginning — when we are most vulnerable.

The problem for us as Founders is we don't realize at the time just how expensive those decisions are, or that our vulnerability will dissipate over time. All we can see in that very moment is that we need "everything all at once" and anyone who is willing to take our fake Monopoly money (equity) to get it is doing us a favor.

They are not doing us a favor.

Founders can easily lose half of their company in the first year by making huge equity decisions that feel like the right decision at the time, but when looking back, become the most expensive decisions they will ever make, and ones that we can't get back.

The McRib of Co-...

What an exciting moment! You’re looking to scale up your startup and need to bring in a growth agency to help you do that. But, it’s a big decision. Choosing the wrong agency will lead to months of delayed growth, thousands of dollars in wasted spend, and difficult conversations down the line trying to understand where it all went wrong.

This means it is vitally important you make the right decision from the get-go. There are hundreds of marketing agencies out there, but if you are in the startup phase of growth I’d recommend going with a startup growth agency that has experience in the earlier stages.

I have done some of the research for you by putting together a list of the top 9 startup agencies I know deliver great results. So, at least...