The Shopify Growth Show

Yonathan and Jim get into the nitty-gritty of a hugely important step on their $3M Challenge journey: validating startup ideas. They discuss how to identify, quantify, and increase product market fit and other helpful tips for deciding what startups present good investment opportunities. TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE   ·      What is product market fit ·      How to measure market fit ·     ...

The first check in since GrowthHit started its $3M challenge. A $300k deal fails, but Yonathan Ayenew joins to discuss key takeaways and important lessons we learned from the first step on this journey. TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE   · What are the Criteria for good investments · Where and how do you find opportunities · What is due diligence and how do you enact that · What were the red fl...

Patrick Dossett, co-founder of the personal development toolkit Madefor joins to chat about how his time in the Navy SEALS prepared him for the unique challenges of founding his own startup, and he shares his tips for success and how to manage your team well even in a crisis. TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE · How important is Grit and the ability to endure for founders · Can stress be useful ·...

Growth Hit begins an exciting (and possibly crazy) journey as Yonathan and Jim announce the beginning of the $3M challenge and a transition to working in public. We put a cherry on top of this exciting chat with a visit from Mike Sroka, who is tearing things up in the Real-Estate software space. Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode: The $3M Challenge ·      What are the benefits of working in publi...

Chris Lu joins me to chat about  the wildly successful Copy.ai service and how he grew it from a startup to a 200k revenue a month with the right approach, a little luck, and an extremely effective tweet. Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode: Why should we care about AI Best use-cases for AI in business Can AI create original content? What a well-placed tweet can accomplish How to get to the magic...

Today, we focus on the why as much as we do the how when it comes to starting businesses and being successful in the launchpad space. Mark Sandeno brings his insight from starting several successful businesses and shares strategies on how to take your successes and re-invest them wisely. Key Ideas from this episode: Where should you focus your time Structuring teams for success How does Airbnb sel...

Listen to today’s episode about how Paul Graham, Y-combinator Founder, gives advice on how to come up with startup ideas. Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode: The blog post How to Get Startup Ideas by Paul Graham What makes Paul Graham impressive Main takeaways from the blog post Organic vs recipe startup generation Best quotes from the blog post Some of the best points from the post Disagreements...

Today, we're sharing financials.  From losing $400k in 48 hours to hitting $2M in sales, I bring my business partner on to talk about the lessons learned growing our agency. Plus, hear how we met and become partners - it's not the traditional story. Here are some of the lessons learned running the agency: Niche Down in Your Focus Focus on Systems and Onboarding Value Based Pricing  Invest in a pre...

In today’s podcast episode, you’ll hear from Ben Wilson, who has his own podcast: How to Take Over the World. Listen in to hear about the energy, charisma, and common traits of people like Jobs, Edison, Napoleon, and Alexander the Great. Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode: How Ben came up with the name and concept of his podcast Traits you need to have to take over the world The energy of the peo...

In today’s episode, we discuss an iconic blog post from Nathan Barry -  The Ladders of Wealth Creation: a Step-by-Step Roadmap to Building Wealth.  Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode: Who Nathan Barry and his path to creating ConvertKit The main takeaways from the blog post What is the Ladder of Wealth Creation How building wealth as a skill Investing your time in wealth creation or wealth creati...

Nathan Barry is the CEO of ConvertKit, an email service provider that's gone from idea to $30M in ARR with zero funding. Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode: Nathan’s explains his framework: Ladders of Wealth Creation Should you start something yourself or acquire a business Why you should focus on a small niche when competing against a powerful incumbent How he has grown ConvertKit from idea to $...

In today’s episode, Miguel Fernandez talks about Capchase and how he was able to raise over $280M. Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode: What problem Miguel wanted to solve with Capchase and why What the people who borrow from Capchase use the money for Advice for bootstrap founders that are worried about raising money How Miguel approached growing at such a large scale so quickly What makes Miguel...

In today’s conversation, we talk about with Charles Myslinsky about how to choose the right path to go down, whether the windfall from Wal-Mart changed his life, and what changes so that the timing of a project goes from wrong to right. Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode: The right path to go down when it comes to ventures that could be rocket ships Whether the windfall from the Wal-Mart sale was...

In today’s episode, you’ll hear from David C. Baker, author of The Business of Expertise . Listen to learn about the tactics that can help you stay in the category of a thought leader or a decision-maker, the mistakes people make when positioning an agency, and how you should be thinking about pricing for your agency. Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode: The difference between being a decision-mak...

Can you be a leader and be lazy with your time and personal contribution to the workplace? Today’s episode is about an iconic read, in this case, a blog post by Andrew Wilkinson. In the post Lazy Leadership, he discusses delegation, building a machine, and working smarter instead of harder. Listen to the episode for a discussion about the blog post including the overall messages of the post, the b...

What are the four types of leverage? How can you use them to grow a business or grow your career? Today’s guest is Eric Jorgenson,author of the book The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness. Listen to the episode to hear what Eric has to say about working with Naval, understanding and using the different types of leverage, and where to get started with a new idea. Topics Dis...

My week doesn't start on Monday. It starts Sunday night when I do my weekly planning.  I outline what I need to accomplish for this week to be successful and what I should not do.  Here is how I attempt to avoid the fire drills that kill a calendar so I can focus on the high impact items.  Resources: Jim Huffman website Jim's Twitter GrowthHit The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Business suits are a necessity for some, but they aren’t necessarily a comfortable or high-performance choice, and many men don’t like them. Today’s guest surprised himself and his family by going into men’s fashion to design comfortable, science-backed clothing for these kinds of situations. Aman Advani is the CEO of Ministry of Supply, a Boston-based clothing company specializing in comfortable...

How do you grow a D2C brand from idea to 8 figures? After working with 100+ brands at my growth agency , I have seen some raise $80M and others go on Shark Tank. Here are the 22 things to do if you want to guarantee success. Get the Product Right. If Not, Nothing Matters. Launch on the Back of Your Flagship Product Solve a Real Problem Focus on a Specific Persona Get the Business Model Right Creat...

One of the types of businesses that saw the most disruption during the pandemic was gyms. So as people start resuming their normal activities to the extent that seems worthwhile to them, how can you create a workout experience that they’ll gravitate toward? Charlie Givens, the founder of PowderHeart, has ideas about the importance of culture and a unique experience in fitness. Listen in to hear wh...

Want to build a growth strategy but don't know where to start? Before you do anything you need to understand the competitive landscape to see what your competitors are doing and what they're not doing. In this episode, I talk about the four free tools you can use to understand where your competitors get traffic, what their ads and emails look like, and how they turn visitors into customers on thei...

I f you want to be a successful founder, you will need to be productive. So what can you do to make yourself more productive? In today’s episode, you’re going to hear a conversation about productivity, habits, and goals that can help you discover what it is you need to do to be a more productive person and a founder. Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode: Defining productivity How to be more product...

Are you listening to lots of podcasts but not really retaining any information?  If so, here are some ways I am looking to learn by putting knowledge into action. It's costing me $80k but I hope to make an ROI on it. The list includes angel investing, joining a board as a director, joining a paid mastermind or founder organization, and hiring a business consultant. Learn what I am trying to get ou...

What stands at the intersection of Slack and Zoom? The answer is Volley: a messaging app that gives users all of the richness of video with the asynchronous flexibility of text. Listen in to today’s interview with Josh Little, founder and CEO of Volley. You’ll learn about proving traction, building the product that you’re going to market, and getting the company to the next level, plus some new st...

It's July 2021 as I record this so here is a mid-year update on my company GrowthHit.  Today I discuss the following:  A financial update on GrowthHit The good things happening at my company The tough things that come with growing pains The questions I have as a bootstrapped CEO What's ahead for the rest of the year Resources: The Hardest Day of My Career Jim Huffman website Jim's Twitter GrowthHi...