The hottest Growth Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Business Topics

A Feral Guide to Marketing

Knowingless • 2552 implied HN points • 19 Mar 26
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Pay attention to where your gaze and tiny desires actually land, even on things you dislike; those subtle attention signals show what will grab other people.
  2. Marketing is mostly selling a story and a self-image, not just a product; make narratives that give people meaning and make the marketing itself enjoyable.
  3. Be brave and experimental: publish lots of things, get feedback, notice what sticks, and lean into those hits instead of trying to perfectly predict viral success.

Downstream Problems

The Breaking Point • 199 implied HN points • 29 Oct 24
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Focus on solving the root problem, not just the surface issues. Fixing the wrong thing will only lead to more problems.
  2. Quality leads are crucial for a successful sales process. Even a flawed process can succeed if the leads are strong and motivated.
  3. Looking upstream for solutions can help fix multiple problems at once. If you improve one area, other issues may also resolve.

One Product, Three Revenue Streams

Tiny Empires • 61 implied HN points • 13 Mar 26
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. A single product can support three revenue streams: the core sale, audience monetization via sponsors or affiliates, and productized knowledge like guides, workshops, or consulting.
  2. For solo founders, three streams hit the sweet spot—diversify enough to cushion revenue shocks but avoid the extra maintenance that four or more streams create.
  3. Start with your existing customers: spot common needs, run cheap tests (an affiliate link, a short guide, or a consulting session), and scale whatever shows real demand to stabilize income.

The Pinhole View of AI Value

Software Design: Tidy First? • 1811 implied HN points • 04 Feb 26
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Seeing AI’s value only as labor replacement is too narrow; AI also raises company value by increasing revenue, shifting timing of cash flows, and creating optional future paths.
  2. AI can boost revenue and growth by scaling human work, enabling personalization at scale, and adding new features customers will pay for, not just by cutting headcount.
  3. AI creates optionality and timing benefits—like deferred hiring or infrastructure, access to new markets and business models, and faster experimentation—that increase value beyond immediate cost savings.

The $1000 side-project

Tiny Empires • 306 implied HN points • 21 Feb 26
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Pick a tiny, focused product you can build and sell quickly so you learn what customers actually want instead of spending months on something no one buys.
  2. Solve problems you personally understand and validate early by selling manually to your first customers; direct feedback from those first sales beats fancy marketing funnels at the start.
  3. Price your product properly, keep costs minimal, and commit to one compounding marketing channel so revenue can grow sustainably — higher prices and low expenses make $1k/month actually useful.
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Make them click

A Bit Gamey • 13 implied HN points • 22 Mar 26
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Treat every project as a hypothesis by writing down the bet — who the customer is, what problem you solve, your approach, and how you’re different. Making the claim explicit lets you test it instead of polishing forever.
  2. Start with a precisely named customer and the single problem that matters to them, not vague broad audiences. If you can be your own customer, it makes clarity and testing much easier.
  3. Run small, fast experiments (landing pages, free offers, communities) to get early signals like clicks and sign‑ups instead of building long before you know it works. Build meaningful product differentiation from the start, not just marketing around a generic offering.

Founder Mode👨‍💼, The Extinction of VC💀, How to Build More Pipeline🚀

The VC Corner • 259 implied HN points • 15 Sep 24
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. The current landscape for venture capital is changing, and there are risks that could impact its future. It's important for founders to understand these shifts.
  2. Founders can take control of their growth strategies by focusing on building a solid sales pipeline. This can help them succeed even in uncertain times.
  3. Adapting to new growth approaches is necessary for SaaS businesses. Finding fresh methods can lead to sustained success and relevance.

How to fix your business in a day

Tiny Empires • 36 implied HN points • 07 Mar 26
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Most business problems are visible frictions—old pricing, unused features, and clunky onboarding—and can be fixed in one focused day by looking for what you’ve been avoiding.
  2. Use a simple schedule: raise prices and fix billing, cut or stop maintaining low-value features, improve onboarding, then automate a recurring task to reclaim time and boost revenue.
  3. Protect your attention by writing down what you’re not going to do; small, focused fixes compound over weeks and months, though they won’t save a fundamentally broken business model.

How do we measure whether China's economy is "ahead" of America's?

Noahpinion • 20059 implied HN points • 04 Jan 25
đź’° Finance Growth
  1. There are different ways to measure the size of economies, like using nominal GDP or purchasing power parity (PPP). Depending on the method, we can get very different perspectives on whether China's economy is ahead of America's.
  2. The exchange rate can change the perception of an economy's size, especially if a country's currency is weak. If China's yuan strengthens, it could suddenly appear larger than the U.S. economy in nominal terms.
  3. When comparing economies, it's important to consider local prices and living standards. For a more accurate view of how people live and what they can afford, using PPP is crucial despite its complexity and potential inaccuracies.

How Duolingo reignited user growth

Lenny's Newsletter • 9571 implied HN points • 28 Feb 23
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Duolingo achieved 4.5x user growth over four years through innovative strategies like leaderboards and push notifications.
  2. Their focus on improving retention over new user acquisition led to significant improvements in engagement metrics.
  3. Using data and models, like Zynga and MyFitnessPal did, helped Duolingo identify North Star metrics and drive growth effectively.

The 3-lever framework

Tiny Empires • 36 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Price: Make each customer worth more by raising base prices, adding premium tiers, or switching to recurring billing, since small increases often multiply revenue without huge drops in conversions.
  2. Distribution: Pick one channel and work it for months so effort compounds — focus on SEO, a niche newsletter, or direct outreach to get the right people seeing your offer.
  3. Retention: Reduce churn because keeping customers longer changes the economics dramatically — deliver early wins, ask why people leave, and remind customers regularly of the value.

Newsletters we read to stay smarter than the competition

CommandBlogue • 139 implied HN points • 04 Sep 24
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Staying updated with newsletters is super important for personal and professional growth. They help you learn quickly and efficiently in a fast-changing world.
  2. Some recommended newsletters focus on tech, product growth, and honest startup experiences. They provide unique insights and practical advice that can really help new teams and startups.
  3. Reading newsletters can keep you motivated and optimistic about the tech industry. It’s a great way to stay informed and inspired by successful stories and strategies.

The Startup Pricing Journey đź’¸

The VC Corner • 439 implied HN points • 30 Jul 24
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Pricing is super important for startups because it affects how customers see your product and can help grow your business.
  2. In the beginning, startups need to choose a pricing strategy that can change and adapt as they learn more about the market.
  3. A good pricing strategy helps with attracting and keeping customers, while a bad one can lead to problems for the startup.

An outbound playbook for 2025

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 883 implied HN points • 03 Dec 25
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. In 2025, successful outbound sales will focus on a mix of cold calls, email campaigns, LinkedIn engagement, and personalized outreach for key accounts. This shows that a balanced approach between automation and manual efforts is essential.
  2. Identifying and targeting ideal customer profiles (ICPs) is crucial. Businesses should develop a scoring model to define their targets and filter their outreach accordingly, ensuring focused efforts yield better results.
  3. Using signals, like website visits and LinkedIn engagement, can enhance outreach effectiveness. These signals allow businesses to connect with prospects who are already interested, leading to higher response rates and engagement.

This Is a Good Year to Build Something Small

Tiny Empires • 159 implied HN points • 23 Jan 26
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. AI has made building products much cheaper and faster, so attention — not development cost — is the scarce resource, making clarity and specificity more valuable than big ambitions.
  2. Small, narrowly scoped products convert and reach viability faster because they’re easier to explain, fit into communities, and don’t require massive scale to matter.
  3. Solo founders and tiny teams win early by iterating quickly and avoiding communication overhead, which reduces burnout and makes small, focused businesses more resilient and profitable.

The best growth tactics of 2025

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 465 implied HN points • 17 Dec 25
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Outbound/ABM, partner/ecosystem plays, and events/community were the biggest growth channels in 2025 — they generated the most pipeline despite the AI hype.
  2. AI-driven content and discovery plus product-led tactics also paid off, with wins from AEO/LLM work (JSON-LD, custom GPTs) and freemium/mini tools that captured high-intent leads.
  3. Execution mattered most: tried-and-true tactics succeeded when done exceptionally — examples include automated intent-based outbound, "give-to-get" partner programs, and intimate in-person or virtual events.

Profile: Ryan Reynolds and Owning the Outcome

Creating Value from Nothing • 132 implied HN points • 22 Jan 26
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Own inbound sales end-to-end by building systems that route leads quickly and make signing up simple, so growth doesn’t stall.
  2. Solve root causes instead of surface symptoms by creating repeatable workflows, clear handoffs, and measurable definitions of “good” so the team doesn't rely on heroics.
  3. A scrappy, cross-functional culture with a bias toward action and rituals that celebrate gritty execution helps teams move fast, learn from outcomes, and sustain improvements.

The AI churn wave?

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 441 implied HN points • 10 Dec 25
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. AI-native apps have much lower retention than traditional B2B SaaS because many users are experimental and leave after trying the product.
  2. Pricing and distribution matter a lot: cheap, self-serve AI tools (under $50/mo) see massive churn while products above about $250/mo show retention similar to B2B SaaS.
  3. Sustained growth depends on durable retention. To reduce churn, focus on real-budget workflows, offer services or forward-deployed engineers, avoid overselling, accelerate adoption, and favor annual plans.

How to use AI agents for marketing

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 544 implied HN points • 16 Nov 25
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. AI can help marketing teams improve lead enrichment by gathering more complete data from multiple sources. This makes it easier to reach out to better-suited customers quickly.
  2. Using AI as an 'inbound BDR' can automate personalized outreach and meeting scheduling, leading to more meetings and opportunities for sales teams. This saves time and enhances engagement.
  3. Creating a custom AI app layer for sales and marketing can streamline customer information and actions needed. This leads to faster responses and improved conversion rates for sales teams.

From 0 to 1,000 Subscribers with Free Recommendations

Kristina God's Online Writing Club • 1318 implied HN points • 07 Mar 24
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Recommendations are a great way to grow your subscriber base. Almost 28% of new subscribers can come from other newsletters suggesting your work.
  2. You don't need to spend money on ads to gain subscribers. Many writers have seen success by simply building relationships and getting recommendations for free.
  3. Substack’s recommendations engine is powerful and can help you increase your audience quickly. It works for new writers just as much as for those with a big following.

B2B Product-Led Sales Guide

Elena's Growth Scoop • 3301 implied HN points • 14 Apr 23
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Acquisition channels are saturated and overloaded, making it hard to get noticed by buyers.
  2. Cost of acquisition is increasing due to heightened channel accessibility and competition.
  3. Product-led sales strategy focuses on enabling end-users to discover the product's value, leading to enterprise-level upgrades.

⤴️ Singularity 1.0: The birth of modernity

Faster, Please! • 365 implied HN points • 04 Dec 25
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. A strong commitment to progress can kickstart significant economic changes even before major events, like the Industrial Revolution. It's about believing in improvement over time.
  2. The advancement of artificial intelligence could lead to big increases in productivity and economic growth in the future. People are curious about when this might happen.
  3. We should focus on being optimistic about growth and abundance, as embracing new technologies can lead to better lives for everyone. Positive change is possible and exciting!

How to build the perfect pitch deck: a step by step guide with examples and an analysis of my Airbnb's deck

The VC Corner • 419 implied HN points • 08 Jun 24
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. A pitch deck is a short presentation that startup founders use to attract investors. It's essential to communicate your business idea clearly and make it appealing.
  2. Investors often have limited time to review pitch decks, so it's important to make your slides simple and direct. Help them easily understand your business and its value.
  3. Including a strong story in your pitch deck is crucial. Outline your business's problem, solution, and unique value in a way that resonates with investors.

Introducing Ronin Vanguard

Ronin’s Newsletter • 86 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
đź”® Crypto Growth
  1. Ronin Vanguard is the public-facing Sky Mavis Growth Team for the Ronin ecosystem, serving as a bridge between the community, builders, and internal teams.
  2. They answer questions, gather and surface user feedback, connect creators and partners, join live events, and amplify community content to help improve Ronin.
  3. The team includes specialists across product, creators, growth, and support who are available on X and Discord as real people, and they expect constructive, harassment-free engagement.

What's really going on in software

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 489 implied HN points • 12 Nov 25
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Companies are seeing stability in key metrics like growth rates and revenue retention. New startups are achieving higher growth rates compared to previous years.
  2. It's important for companies to focus on the combination of customer acquisition costs and revenue retention to predict long-term success. This new matrix can help clarify business performance.
  3. AI is a major trend, but it's changing the industry landscape. Companies born after the rise of AI are experiencing much faster growth than traditional B2B software firms.

10 Quick GTM Fixes You Can Ship This Week

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 34 implied HN points • 15 Feb 26
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Know exactly who to sell to — document a five‑point ICP and a list of disqualifiers (ANTI‑ICP) and enforce it so your pipeline stops getting noisy.
  2. Pick one clear positioning anchor (product category or use case) and make it consistent across homepage, LinkedIn, demos, and sales materials; pause weak channels and focus deeply on the strongest one.
  3. Tighten execution with simple processes and metrics — add source attribution, track lost reasons, set hard open/close deal criteria, review demo recordings, and actively use case studies and referrals.

Why You Shouldn't Worry about AI Taking Jobs

Richard Hanania's Newsletter • 3291 implied HN points • 09 Feb 25
đź•ą Technology Growth
  1. Many jobs we have today are not really necessary and could be replaced by AI. This is because some jobs exist due to government rules or old systems that don't make much sense anymore.
  2. People generally prefer human interaction over machines, especially in industries like hospitality, art, and healthcare. Humans provide a unique value that machines can't replicate, making these jobs safer from replacement.
  3. Even if AI takes many jobs, our economy is expected to grow significantly, which can help support those out of work through wealth redistribution. Governments have the ability to provide for everyone, even if many people end up jobless.

đź‘‘ Everything you need to know about valuation

Compounding Quality • 2614 implied HN points • 23 Feb 23
đź’° Finance Growth
  1. In the short term, stock prices are driven by fluctuations in valuation, while in the long term, they follow the intrinsic value of a company.
  2. When investing, it's crucial to buy stocks at a discount to their true worth to avoid poor results.
  3. Consider factors like Return On Invested Capital (ROIC) and expected growth when evaluating the value of a company to make informed investment decisions.

Homepage Teardowns: What 6 Top SaaS Companies Get Right (and Wrong)

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 43 implied HN points • 01 Feb 26
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Make your homepage instantly clear about who the product is for and what it does, use contextual social proof and realistic product visuals, and guide visitors to deeper pages with CTAs and FAQs instead of dumping too much detail.
  2. A sales-led motion can work below €10k ACV if you meet the right metrics: fast CAC payback (ideally under 6–12 months), enough ARR per AE, win rates above ~20%, short sales cycles, and mostly inbound-driven demos.
  3. Use early sales as a learning channel: document a simple visual sales process with clear CTAs, qualification rules, and next steps so you can learn how customers buy, improve positioning, and scale repeatably.

What GTM teams are doing with ChatGPT

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 851 implied HN points • 30 Jul 25
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. GTM teams are increasingly using ChatGPT because it helps streamline many tasks, making it the go-to tool for marketers. Instead of juggling multiple tools, many prefer this single platform for various needs.
  2. ChatGPT is versatile and can be used for a variety of functions like persona research, new product positioning, and creating content outlines. This flexibility helps teams save time and improve productivity.
  3. Using AI like ChatGPT reduces costs and enhances marketing efforts, such as localizing content and generating targeted event invitations. It allows teams to operate more efficiently and effectively reach their audience.

First do it, then do it right, then do it better.

Elevate • 1153 implied HN points • 24 Dec 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Growth
  1. Just start somewhere - Begin with a simple step to kick off the journey towards success
  2. The Power of Starting - Taking the first step energizes and motivates us, leading to progress and eventual success
  3. First, Do It, Do It Right, Do It Better - Embrace the MVP mindset, refine and correct, and strive for continuous improvement on your journey

There's a whole lot of ugly out there when it comes to growth teams.

Elena's Growth Scoop • 904 implied HN points • 29 Jan 24
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. The growth teams face systematic failures in the industry due to various issues like unclear growth fundamentals and bad strategic decisions from executives.
  2. Symptoms of a bad growth team include not focusing on monetization, neglecting retention, and obsessing over 'hacks' instead of building sustainable growth engines.
  3. To build a successful growth team, companies need to prioritize monetization, retention, and data-driven decision-making, and ensure alignment between departments for optimal results.

The Renaissance of Media

Growth Croissant • 963 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. Building a media business as an individual is challenging and requires hard work and consistency.
  2. As a media business grows, managing growth, monetization, and tech can become distracting from the core creative efforts.
  3. To bridge the resource gap between large media companies and individual creators, providing hands-on support for tech and growth can be beneficial.

23 lessons in 2023

Elevate • 1014 implied HN points • 30 Dec 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Growth
  1. Small acts of kindness have a big impact on others' days.
  2. Consistent effort leads to progress over time.
  3. Focus on progress, not perfection, and be kind to yourself in the process.

Paid subscriber tool: Claude Code & Cowork plugin for MTK1 frameworks

MKT1 Newsletter • 5 implied HN points • 02 Mar 26
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. MKT1 offers a set of Claude-powered skills that run marketing frameworks so you can build strategy and materials faster.
  2. The included skills help with channel strategy, homepage positioning reviews, identifying marketing advantages, generating GACCS briefs, searching the MKT1 newsletter archive, and finding templates.
  3. The skills come as a plugin for Claude Code and Cowork — use slash commands or natural prompts, the plugin auto-updates, and installation details are available to paid subscribers.

What's Next for SAS? (Again)

thomaswdinsmore • 199 implied HN points • 02 Jun 24
đź’Ľ Business Growth
  1. SAS founder Jim Goodnight faces a transition in leadership and ownership as he's 82 with no children engaged in the business.
  2. Options for SAS's future include selling to employees, a corporate buyer, or private equity investors, all of which may lead to restructuring.
  3. Despite initial plans to go public, SAS has faced challenges with growth and profitability, leading to multiple delays in the IPO process.