VC Chamath Palihapitiya Says He Has Cracked the Code for Making Startups Grow

This is my comment from the end of the article: I respect Chamath a lot for all his growth accomplishments. But in an article that says “he has cracked the code for making startups grow” he is quoted as saying “all this growth hacking stuff is a bunch of bullshit.” To me the idea of “cracking the code for making startups grow” is bullshit.

Every company is different. There is no code. Ultimately growth is a function of the right mix of a product that meets important user needs and tenacious creative data driven execution that leverages principles of growth and often exploits psychological triggers. And as our last four growth studies on GrowthHackers.com show (Square, Snapchat, Uber and Belly), sustainable growth also piles on a ton of good old fashion word of mouth. There is no single code for driving growth.

My time growing Dropbox combined a lot of relentless execution and skills, but I readily acknowledge that I was very lucky to have the opportunity to work on a product with the potential of Dropbox. Same goes for LogMeIn, Eventbrite, Lookout, Webs... I didn't crack a code. I need to keep learning every day.

Growth hacking is the science of trying to bring all this stuff together. I have a hard time believing only 6 people in the world are capable of figuring it out.

I appreciate that he's had success, and what he's accomplished is nothing short of impressive. But to say that there are only a handful of people who can figure it out is sheer hubris.

So there's One Right Way to manage all businesses in a broad category?

I'm old enough to have heard that a few times before ...