Hack to a billion dollars in 3 years

53 replies
This is a great article by our Freelancer.com CEO, Matt Barrie.
It is about achieving hyper growth by leveraging huge distribution channels. It'll also give you a bit of an insight into how growth hacking builds companies and what we do at Freelancer.com

How to hack a billion dollars of revenue in 3 years | LinkedIn
#billion #dollars #hack #years
  • Profile picture of the author Josh MacDonald
    Does Matt Barrie have an account on here?
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    • Profile picture of the author Alaister
      He does. You'll probably see him around during WAMA sessions.
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    • Profile picture of the author M Bissonnette
      Nice article, thanks for the link.
      I'm curious to see if he has an account as well.
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      An investment in knowledge pays the best interest

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  • Profile picture of the author datingworld
    Informative article.
    Learnt something new today
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    • Profile picture of the author JosieAberdeen
      Great Article! Thank You for sharing it. In a world where information becomes obsolete, quickly- in a New York minute - almost two years later and the info is as relevant today as it was when first posted. Perennial!

      I can totally appreciate the significance of looking for that 'fire-hose' as the author calls it.
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  • Profile picture of the author drem
    This is an amazing article, and the one fact that really stood out to me was the amount of people not online yet. I have this misconception that everyone is using the Internet, but if these figures are true, this is just the beginning of the Internet explosion. There is a lot of room for growth for even a small fish like myself.
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Good article but a little misleading title, lol. I thought Freelancer's revenue was 18M in 2013 with 700k profit?
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  • Profile picture of the author JensSteyaert
    He who hires the best statistician will be the most succesful in the future
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  • Profile picture of the author brentb
    Good article!
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    • Profile picture of the author mphis
      Pretty inspiring.. Growth Hacking feels like a spin term for black hat though
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  • Profile picture of the author goindeep
    Q1; Why is his collar up? Has he just come back from rehearsals of the Grease re-make.

    Q2: Sounds like he is talking about marketing. Can someone confirm he is talking about marketing? I got confused with all the fancy schmancy new ways of saying marketing other than to use the word marketing.

    Q3: What does the title have to do with Freelancer or the article. Or is that another 'thing' people are doing?
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    • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
      Originally Posted by goindeep View Post

      Q2: Sounds like he is talking about marketing. Can someone confirm he is talking about marketing? I got confused with all the fancy schmancy new ways of saying marketing other than to use the word marketing.
      Growth hacking to me, is just a silicon valley buzzword to excuse the lack of profitability or ROI in your marketing.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jordan Stark
      Originally Posted by goindeep View Post

      Q1; Why is his collar up? Has he just come back from rehearsals of the Grease re-make.

      Q2: Sounds like he is talking about marketing. Can someone confirm he is talking about marketing? I got confused with all the fancy schmancy new ways of saying marketing other than to use the word marketing.

      Q3: What does the title have to do with Freelancer or the article. Or is that another 'thing' people are doing?
      Why the negativity man? The OP made a valid contribution and the first thing that you post in reply are insults? What's your problem and what makes you think that it's cool to post something like that? How are insults constructive? Your reply is very childish and unmerited. Maybe if you ask valid questions you will get valid answers. You did nothing but help to swell your ego and exhibit raw ignorance. If you don't understand the article or the points made, marketing in general might be over your head and you might be out of place.
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  • Profile picture of the author gferrand
    Great article to share. Wish there were more advice articles for small startups and starting entrepreneurs. The idea of achieving this kind of growth without millions of dollars in investment can skew one's perception.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lurk
    I guess firehose is a new marketing buzz word too. It is not what you say but how you say it,lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author WAL08
    Nice article.

    Wallstreet is obsessed with growth, that's what drives these companies to billion + dollar valuations. Userbase is the new currency IMHO

    These companies are awesome at employing multidisciplinary, and very impressive, teams of scientist to achieve rapid growth in their user base which in terns triggers a love fest with investment bankers
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  • Profile picture of the author sysmarketer
    This is relatively a new field and requires several top notch predictive scientists to pull off repeated success. The assumption that one analysis would lead to success in inaccurate. Its all probablistic and therefore based on assumptions that lead to the derivation of the probablistic model used. If the assumptions are incorrect or if the assumptions are correct for the existing circumstances; any pertubation of the system could lead to disasterous outcomes. All in all it in most circumstances that don't have super budgets this could be similar to rolling dice
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    • Profile picture of the author Captain Speaking
      Great article from Matt. I am following him on LNKD now. Thanks for sharing!

      Those 5B users @2020 promises lot of fun for us in the future!

      D.
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  • Profile picture of the author JayHarper
    I thought that was a GREAT article!

    If that doesn't get you excited, I don't know what would.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dsdomination
    Great info shared !
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  • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
    If you want hypergrowth, conventional marketing won't get you there, because traditional marketing methods involves absolute, linear growth and not relative, exponential growth.
    This is a false, straw-man argument, used to justify a term that itself is vague and unquantifiable. I'm sorry Alastair, but bragging about having a "PhD in Quantum Physics" on board made me laugh. Maybe I'm a little slow, but it would help if someone explained how quantum physics plays a role in "Growth Hacking".

    Just take a look at the posted link on 23 ways to Growth Hack - which include things like posting to a blog. Or doing SEO. Really, SEO is growth hacking? Making a blog post? Social medial like making this forum post? Come on. That is why I say the term is meaningless and unquantifiable.

    The fact is much "marketing" is already quantifiable and has never been limited to some absolute, linear growth process. The process of "one to many" is not new to the Internet. It goes back hundreds of years to the printing press. What does Matt think newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio are if not one to many mediums?

    Yes, the Internet affords even greater, worldwide opportunities of reach. Tools change.

    The idea of Internet companies growing fast for sake of getting big is hardly new. Then came the dot com implosion. Growth without profits is called debt and ultimately a dead company. Growth, even with profits means little. Can you believe AOL once bought Time Warner?

    But I will say this - taking one part of "marketing" - saying it is new, relabeling it and calling it "Growth Hacking" - is smart marketing.

    But I'd leave off the reference to quantum physics. From now on, every time I read about "growth hacking" I am going to think of quantum physics.

    .
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    • Profile picture of the author youallnome
      You said it much better than I could have said it.

      In truth I'm new to the growth hacking idea, but after reading the well written article, I still wasn't sure what was REALLY new...

      A good read never the less.

      Many thanks for sharing.
      John

      Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

      This is a false, straw-man argument, used to justify a term that itself is vague and unquantifiable. I'm sorry Alastair, but bragging about having a "PhD in Quantum Physics" on board made me laugh. Maybe I'm a little slow, but it would help if someone explained how quantum physics plays a role in "Growth Hacking".

      Just take a look at the posted link on 23 ways to Growth Hack - which include things like posting to a blog. Or doing SEO. Really, SEO is growth hacking? Making a blog post? Social medial like making this forum post? Come on. That is why I say the term is meaningless and unquantifiable.

      The fact is much "marketing" is already quantifiable and has never been limited to some absolute, linear growth process. The process of "one to many" is not new to the Internet. It goes back hundreds of years to the printing press. What does Matt think newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio are if not one to many mediums?

      Yes, the Internet affords even greater, worldwide opportunities of reach. Tools change.

      The idea of Internet companies growing fast for sake of getting big is hardly new. Then came the dot com implosion. Growth without profits is called debt and ultimately a dead company. Growth, even with profits means little. Can you believe AOL once bought Time Warner?

      But I will say this - taking one part of "marketing" - saying it is new, relabeling it and calling it "Growth Hacking" - is smart marketing.

      But I'd leave off the reference to quantum physics. From now on, every time I read about "growth hacking" I am going to think of quantum physics.

      .
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    • Profile picture of the author IDoTheLegWork
      Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

      The fact is much "marketing" is already quantifiable and has never been limited to some absolute, linear growth process. The process of "one to many" is not new to the Internet. It goes back hundreds of years to the printing press. What does Matt think newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio are if not one to many mediums?

      .
      I disagree that mass media channels are one to many in the context
      of the article. It's not about one message to many people, it's about
      one distribution of the message into many distributions of the message
      without the messenger's involvement. With mass media the message
      hits the person and dies resulting in a linear growth process based on
      conversion rate. With the "growth hacking" model growth is exponential
      because the message doesn't die but instead gets shared from person
      to persons to persons and so on.

      moving on...

      I don't see this process as being "rocket science". I'm sure there is a
      lot involved in analyzing the dynamic data generated in evaluating how
      people/groups interact in order to improve results, but I don't see needing
      a PhD to participate. A good marketer that builds an incentive to share
      into the funnel can see exponential growth without so much as a slide
      rule.
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  • Profile picture of the author Richard King
    Enjoyed reading that, a great article, appreciate the share.

    Richard
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    New niche marketing site launching soon..... ;)

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    • Profile picture of the author AzzamS
      Although an excellent read, can infuse inspiration; unfortunately the real world business has yet to capture the understanding of growth hacking.

      It does require an individual with access the knowledge and moreso the arsenal of data from all channels i.e. PPC, Organic, Email, Split testing, etc to provide a wider angel view to those who matter in the business, mainly the board, CEO, directors, etc.

      We have a digital marketing strategy meet with the chairman and CEO for a national UK brand next week. The intention is to get the chairman to buy into the 'principals' of what is need to become more digital. If there is a buy at that point then there is scope for 'growth' otherwise it will be stagnant - flat line performance
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  • Profile picture of the author Euritos
    Good article, i enjoyed
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  • Profile picture of the author osredworm
    Nice article, thanks for the link.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jordan Stark
    Originally Posted by Alaister View Post

    This is a great article by our Freelancer.com CEO, Matt Barrie.
    It is about achieving hyper growth by leveraging huge distribution channels. It'll also give you a bit of an insight into how growth hacking builds companies and what we do at Freelancer.com

    How to hack a billion dollars of revenue in 3 years | LinkedIn
    Great article and yes, I learned something. Keep it coming!
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  • Profile picture of the author SMSMobileMarketer
    Enjoyed the read, thank you for sharing!
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  • Profile picture of the author Cassie416
    Awesome information. It definitely feels like a spin on black hat methods. Enjoyed this article
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  • Profile picture of the author cldnails
    After reading the article I still feel like I know the same amount about the topic. I mean, providing me examples of successful businesses does not illustrate the topic. Not trying to be negative, but the entire page just read like an SEO copy for someone looking to rank for the keyword firehose.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rashid Iqbal
    Good article, i enjoyed
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  • Profile picture of the author gm777
    My growth hacks: find a way to get a few first members to your club. Make them active and let them invite their friends to your (closed, invite only) club. Give your members 1 credit per day to invite only 1 friend.
    And look how your club growth exponentially.

    Facebook was an elitish, invite only club first.
    Pinterest was an invite only club first (and someone called it the fastest growing social network later).

    Help your members in making their own content and let them distribute it across a few social networks and so on.
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  • Profile picture of the author amyjames
    Great Article! by Matt Barrie
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  • Profile picture of the author Shultz204
    nice article
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  • Profile picture of the author Adrian John
    Thanks for a good read I learned couple things I will try for my site & business
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  • Profile picture of the author nordend
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  • Profile picture of the author mikedy
    Inspiring article! Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author welovebud
    Great article, really got me thinking!
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  • Profile picture of the author w13
    Thanks for sharing this great article. It give me insight for my future business
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  • Profile picture of the author fsiegel
    Banned
    Thanks for sharing this article. Very insightful!
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  • Profile picture of the author KalobTaulien
    Great article from a top Influencer on LinkedIn!
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    Kalob from Footrr.com

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  • Profile picture of the author Cryptonite
    great share, thanks for this 1...
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  • Profile picture of the author IskaDev
    Nice article, thanks for the link.
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  • Profile picture of the author somebody
    The article doesn't state anything new, but it gave me a great idea, so I'm happy I've run into it.
    Thank you
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  • Profile picture of the author surrogate
    Impressive marketing effort, Matt!
    "There's plenty more distribution firehoses that people have yet to figure out fully; Twitter (followers & search), Reddit (readers), Amazon (buyers), Kickstarter (financiers), YouTube (watchers) and my company, Freelancer (workers)."
    So you suggest here to consider your company in the same league with Twitter, Amazon, and Youtube?
    Nice try!
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  • Profile picture of the author footpod
    nice article - went to sit outside to think about it...
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  • Profile picture of the author li0n1
    [DELETED]
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  • Profile picture of the author Robinsh123
    Thanks for sharing this link that tells about hacking the growth and that growth is talking about in billions of businesses.
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  • Profile picture of the author Noctilus
    Proud to be a WF member who's owner puts out intelligent articles that are worth taking out a few hours on Sunday to read. Aces!
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  • Profile picture of the author Awesomeinside
    Thanks for this article.

    I liked this phrase in the article: "You should have zero advertising spend. If your growth isn’t viral, it’s fake." Of course you need a nice infrastructure and a good valued product/service which creates engagement and people share with love.

    The another learning lesson: distribution firehoses. Thats a good idea to build on.
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  • Profile picture of the author AaronBurton
    Yo!!! That was a sick article lol. That makes so much sense. Facebook is a huge distribution firehouse. I use to be able to growth hack with promoted posts but they took that feature away. Was too powerful. For $6 you could over extend your presence across your friends list as well as people who you tagged in a post.

    I never knew Rovio was the first company to reach the top of the charts. Thats amazing. I think PewdiePie the YouTuber understands growth hacking he is the #1 channel in the world. There is a theory going around that since he was from out of the states he brought his old following and started to grow a US following as well

    But the name of the game is get in early on trends. A billion dollars doesn't sound so distant anymore. Thanks for sharing!
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  • Profile picture of the author joeleduardo
    Originally Posted by Alaister View Post

    This is a great article by our Freelancer.com CEO, Matt Barrie.
    It is about achieving hyper growth by leveraging huge distribution channels. It'll also give you a bit of an insight into how growth hacking builds companies and what we do at Freelancer.com

    How to hack a billion dollars of revenue in 3 years | LinkedIn
    whoahh, thats crazy, that's crime. But for purpose learning i think that's not bad
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