7 Elements That Make or Break Early-Stage Growth

The Growth Equation: A Diagnostic Tool for Stuck Startups

Read Time: 3 mins

The Problem: Founders in the Trough of Disillusionment

You've launched your product. 🎉 You're expecting great things to happen. But instead of explosive growth, you get… a deafening silence…

Sound familiar?

Unfortunately, it does for me. I learned this the hard way with my first company, The Craft. Built a product that punched above it’s weight, launched….and no one knew it existed. 🥲

Andy Budd, Designer turned VC and Author of the Growth Equation calls this the "trough of disillusionment"—that devastating gap between launch expectations and reality. Most founders get stuck here, throwing random solutions at the wall hoping something sticks. In a moment, we’ll dive further into how Founders can get blind sighted by their own strengths…who would have thought right? 😅👇🏽

We were lucky to have Andy Budd join my course on growth for a sustainable future as a guest speaker. Here’s what he said:

“When you are in this trough of disillusionment, your problem solving skills go out the window... You sort of reach for the most obvious example, even if it's a stupid one.”

First, let’s talk about how to use Andy’s Growth Equation to avoid this altogether. ❌

The Growth Equation: 7 Elements

Andy Budd has distilled years of advising early-stage startups into a simple diagnostic framework. Think of it as your startup's vital signs check: 🩺

The 5 Growth Drivers (+)

1. Audience - Do you have enough people who could potentially buy?

2. Motivation - Do they actually care about the problem you're solving?

3. Value - Are you delivering meaningful results fast enough?

4. Stickiness - Do people come back and integrate your product into their workflow?

5. Virality - Do satisfied users naturally bring others in?

The 2 Growth Killers (-)

6. Friction - What's preventing people from getting to value?

7. Competition - What are people using instead of your product? (Hint: It may not be what you think)

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Andy Budd, VC Seedcamp

The Founder Strengths Diagnostic

Product-Led Founder

• Weak on: Audience, Motivation, Competition

• Strong on: Product features

• Solution: Stop building features. Start building audience and positioning.

Sales-Led Founder

• Weak on: Value delivery, Stickiness, Friction

• Strong on: Audience, Motivation

• Solution: Stop adding customers. Start reducing time-to-value and friction.

The Counterintuitive Truth

As Founders, we naturally want to lean into our strengths because its where we’re comfortable. In fact, I interviewed a Climate Tech Founder on the podcast yesterday who confirmed this.

Here's what Andy discovered: Founders may actually need to do the opposite of what feels natural. 💡 For example, if you consider my background building SaaS for a decade, I leaned in hard to making a great digital product while neglecting marketing and sales.

• Product people think adding features will solve everything → They need to focus on market positioning

• Sales people think more customers will solve everything → They need to focus on product experienced

Aim for balance. ⚖️

Your Growth Equation Audit

Take 5 minutes to honestly rate your startup on each element (1-10):

Growth Drivers:

• Audience: Do you have 1000+ qualified prospects?

• Motivation: Are 40%+ "very disappointed" if your product disappeared?

• Value: Do users get value within their first session?

• Stickiness: Are people using your product regularly? (consider what timeline makes sense for your product)

• Virality: Does each user bring in 0.5+ additional users?

Growth Killers:

• Friction: Can someone get value in under 5 minutes?

• Competition: Do you know exactly what people use instead of you?

The Essential Bytes

→ Growth isn't about always about adding more—it's also removing blockers.

Most growth problems aren't solved by building new capabilities. As an advisor, the solution I’ve often come across after a thorough audit is: make existing capabilities more accessible and removing the barriers that prevent users from experiencing value.

Does your startup need help? Reach out to team@conscioustechventures.com.

Your Next Steps

I'd love to hear where you are in your journey:

• Which element of the growth equation is your weakest?

• Are you more product-focused or sales-focused?

• What's one blocker you could remove this week?

Share your experience in the comments below – I'll personally respond to questions and insights.

Comment your biggest learning! 💬

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