Startup Growth Playbooks

Proven growth strategies from real startups with specific metrics. Not frameworks -- tactics that worked, organized by stage and budget.

Modern Best Practices (Jan 2026): Distribution > product. Pick one channel, go deep, measure weekly. Paid acquisition before PMF is burning money. Build in public costs nothing and compounds. Every feature should have a distribution angle. AI search visibility (GEO/AEO) is a new compounding channel -- optimize for LLM citations, not just Google rankings.

When to Use

• You have a product but zero/low traction
• You need specific examples of what worked (not frameworks)
• You are bootstrapped or budget-constrained
• You want stage-specific tactics (not "it depends")
• You need to choose between growth strategies with evidence
• You want to design growth loops into your product

When NOT to Use