Last September, WP Engine’s Founder—Jason Cohen—joined Bronson Taylor for an interview on growth hacker TV. We’ve got an unlocked link of the interview to share with you.
Jason answered a range of questions relating to WP Engine, his personal experiences as an entrepreneur, and advice for startup founders.
Traction
First up, Jason discussed WP Engine, including his experience validating “traction” (the willingness of people to give you money for your product or service) for WP Engine.
If you’ve ever wondered how Jason came up with—and validated—the idea for WP Engine, check out the interview.
Growth Curves and Channels
Growth curves for businesses will change over time. Jason’s experience has been that businesses struggle to grow, until they unlock a particular growth channel.
His advice to startups is to layer difference channels, and not to expect a growth curve until they have systematic ways of growing.
Data and Rules of Thumb
The Lean Startup has us all looking at and thinking about data, which is a good thing. But Jason worries that the pendulum may have swung too far the other way. He suggested that data be used as part of a more holistic analysis.
He also discussed several rules of thumb, including how much a company should be willing to pay per click.
MicroConf 2013
Finally, Bronson asked Jason about his presentation at MicroConf in 2013. The following sentence strongly resonated with many of the attendees:
You create a money machine [a business that allows you to quit your day job] through predictable acquisition of recurring revenue with annual pre-pay in a good market.
Bronson and Jason broke the statement up into its discrete parts, discussing what was meant by the various elements (predictability, the need to charge more, recurring revenue, annual pre-pay, and being in a good market).
Advice for Startups
The interview ended with Jason’s best (general) advice for a startup that is trying to grow. First of all, he suggested startup founders take advice from people who dig in and ask questions about their business.
Moreover, Jason recommends knowing what you want out of the company. Ask yourself what your ideal situation is. From there, figure out how you build a company with that end goal in mind.
After all, isn’t the promise of entrepreneurship to get to the thing that you actually want to do?
growth hacker TV has offered a coupon code to readers of this blog. The code is “wpengine” and provides a free month of access.
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