Simple. Your Brain.
You need to collect data, make sense of it and let it drive your decisions. I think Statistics 101 and some Javascript could be a good start.

I slightly dislike the name growth/hack. It implies that it take no work, when honestly it is a mix of hard work, intuition, luck, ambition, hard work and hard work.


Saying that here are some ideas:


Viral Marketing ( look into how Hotmail started )
PR
Unconventional PR (stunts, April fools etc)
Search Engine Marketing
Social & Display Ads
Offline Ads
Search Engine Optimization (have a look at the blog at moz.com for whitboard fridays)
Content Marketing ( Create the best content on the internet on the subject you choose)
Email Marketing
Contact Blogs and bloggers
Affiliate Programs
Existing Platforms ( look at whats out there that might fit with your business and partner up)
Trade Shows ( create contacts )
Speaking Engagements ( be an expert in a field, you may get invited )
Community Building

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Whoa! There are lots of growth hacker tools but haven't tried one though. I think this link could you anyway but some of it are paid tools.

The K.I.S.S Strategy is the best tool I know (keep, It, Simple, Stupid), it keeps me on track.
Rather than having an ever-growing list of "to-do's" ask yourself what one thing could I do to make all the other tasks obsolete or unimportant? Then focus on that one thing. As a startup you need to realise that your resources are limited (in most cases you are the only resource), so you need to keep asking yourself I'm I being productive, or I'm I just being busy? Busy people go round in circles, productive people move forward. Anything that doesn't move you a step closer to your goal is a waste of time.

Creativity and work ethic.

That is all.

I'd say analytics and knowing how to do some simple programming are the two most important things.

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Pinterest Auto Following script and iMacros.

I think there are plenty of must-have tools for growth hackers. All you need is just to find them.
My favorite tools are: Crowdfire (for Twitter management), IFTTT, Buffer, Sidekick, Social Locker.

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I would say that the first step into growth hacking is to deeply understand what's going on your website: who and why visits it and what users do. Basically you need tools for qualitative and quantitative analysis of your website. A nice set of tools: Google Analytics (not a surprise) + CrazyEgg (heatmaps) + Survicate (onsite visitors' surveys). When you combine data from these 3 tools you are close to knowing everything about your website and its visitors.

The second thing is to increase awareness of your business. Approaching bloggers seems to be a good way. Looking for all sensible blogs in a specific industry is incredibly time-consuming so it'a good idea to use tools like NinjaOutreach. It's not 100% accurate and you will still have to spend some time googling but still can save you a lot of time.

Nobody can beat IFFFT - I love it and it do everything what you can imagine of.

- VWO
- A Project Management Tool of your Choice
- Email Marketing Service of your choice

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Not sure if it counts as a tool but the lean analytics book is a great resource

Isn't growth hacking just a new name/spin on something that has always existed? It's like everyone talking about the "cloud". It's all just marketing. However, I have nothing against TOOLS that people can use. Yeah, sorry, I still don't like the name that had to coin.

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It also sound like a new name for something that has been around a while. They keep confusing us with new terminology.

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Thanks everyone!
I noticed some tools that I never heard of before.

Regarding Analytics tools you use - what featured you find missing?

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I can't recommend specific tool but you need to choose your favorite
Analytics tool
Social Analytics tool
Popup tool
Email marketing tool

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You created a great list here! Thanks everyone..
I will now share my :

Analytics:
Mixpanel, Google Analytics, KissMetrics

Email:
Mail Chimp, Sendgrid

SEO tools for Growth Hackers:
Moz, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Alexa

Social Monitoring:
Topsy, Notify.ly


What are you all using for Content Posting and Landing Page Creators?

I'm over at your web site now.

I currently use Google Analytics, Urchin web stats, Alexa stats, AdFree stats that show me what's happening in real time, and I check in on my affiliate accounts. I record what's happening on a spread sheet. Ugh. PITA. Now you're giving me yet another stat to check.

My question is - why have you limited yourself to start-ups and of the start-ups, further limited yourself to those that have a sign-up sheet of one sort or another. That's a pretty narrow niche and since most start-ups fall off the edge, you have to rely on a steady stream of new customers.

I understand the importance of list making. That's been a sales tool since trade began in the stone age. But as it stands your product is not useful to me.

Since you've come this far in your dev work, why not keep going to design additional features to make life easier for those of us who would be repeat customers?

That became the best must growth hacking tool thread ever!
So I DO have a few to add:
To follow and track your competitors i'd use colibri or any other similar tool.
qualaroo is the right one for you to promote surveys
AddCharts is to get charts and analytics for intercom
Yozio is for mobile growth
and Unbounce is for the best landing page creator

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One more vote for KISS strategy, let's you focus and it gets the work done every single time

I am also using lots of social media analytics tool in order to grow my small startup.
Tools such as Sleek, Hootsuite, Buffer and lots of others. Would like to hear if any of you are using these tools or something similar.

Akilometer,

Check following resources and tools for growth hacking.

35 Growth Hacking Tools by Kiss Metrics

Huge Resources for Growth Hackers


Novice ? Learn Growth Hacking

Or you can join my twitter network, to get daily updates, tips, and resources on growth hacking.

Cheers,

Blogging is the best bet to get yourself up and running. Target long tail keywords with low competition and then slowly scale them upwards.

Hire somebody with a lot of contacts.

When I worked for a digital agency in 1999, we grew because the MD had a filofax full of top notch contacts. I guess these days he/she would have 500+ contacts on Linked In.

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Growth hacking is one of the most talked-about term in the market world as well as in the startup. It is one of the best revolutionary way for accelerating and shaping startup growth.

It is important to note that growth hacker's job is totally different from a traditional marketer's job. There are large number of different tools for growth hackers such as Colibri.io, Pay with a tweet, click to tweet, Nimble, MixRank, Twilighter, Bounce exchange, Hello bar, SessionCam, KISSmetrics, CrazyEgg, Totango, Unbounce, Optimizely, Visual Website Optimizer are some of the best must have tools for growth hackers.

For new starters it is important to make use of these available growth hackers for increasing traffic of their respective websites which is also helpful in increasing profit for that particular organization.

If you have started your new business then in starting you can make use of different two to three growth hacking techniques and when you will see profit then after that you can increase the number for having profitable business.

Growth hackers make use of website analytics, search engine optimization, A/B testing, as well as content marketing. It is essential to note that growth hackers make use of different marketing and product iterations such as testing, email marketing, SEO strategy, Persuasive copy, viral strategy and much more.

Sproutsocial, Hootsuite and many more. Actually, the tools will also depend on the type of your business and goals.

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The most important tool is your sales funnel and its optimization.

Getting a sale is the culmination of many steps. Each step causes some people to continue to the next step, and others to stop. You have to look at each step and continuously optimize it.

Imagine a simplified set of steps:

1. View Ad
2. View Marketing Page
3. Free Trial Account Signup Form
4. Someone decides to pay for your product

Let's say at each step, we currently have this number of people continue:

1. View Ad - 2% click through
2. View Marketing Page - 5% click "sign up"
3. Free Trial Account Signup Form - 33% fill out form
4. Someone decides to pay for your product - 25% convert to paying

This means that if 12,000 people see your add, 240 view your marketing page, 12 decide to signup up, four start a trial, and one gives you money.

Each step can be optimized independently and will impact your sales. You have to make a bunch of small positive changes at each step. Over time, these changes will add up and you will see it in your sales.

Imagine you put some work into each step, and your new ratios are:

1. View Ad - 2.2% click through
2. View Marketing Page - 7% click "sign up"
3. Free Trial Account Signup Form - 40% fill out form
4. Someone decides to pay for your product - 30% convert to paying

Now, if 12,000 people see your add, 264 view your marketing page, 18 decide to signup up, seven start a trial, and two gives you money.

You increased your add click through by 0.2%, your marketing page click through by 2%, your trial signup form conversion by 7%, and conversion to paying by 5%. However, the cumulative effect is a 100% increase in sales!

Little steps make a big difference. Keep hacking away, one bit at a time.