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Experts Guides

Elena Verna

Growth advisor, Head of Growth at Lovable, formerly Amplitude and Miro

Elena Verna is head of growth at Lovable and has led growth at Miro, Amplitude, Dropbox and SurveyMonkey. Her rule for product-led growth is to start with product-led retention, measured by activation and engagement, and never with product-led acquisition. At Lovable, she says, the team cares more about engagement retention than paid retention, because the north star is usage.

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Frameworks
1
Problems
1
Ideas
6
Recordings
6
Updated

Key ideas

Distribution

When nobody finds what you built

Distribution

Owned vs Rented Channels

Paid search and social are rented from an algorithm that can take them back. The earned channel is the one nobody can outbid you for.

you are paying them and you're paying for their distribution and access to their distribution
Verna, on what a paid channel buys Watch at 44:58
Read the framework

  • Growth Loops Framework

    Growth loops are closed systems where the output of one cycle becomes the input for the next, creating compounding growth. They differ from linear funnels.

    10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna

More

  • Adjacent User Theory

    Focus on users just outside your core ICP who almost become customers but don't quite convert. Understanding and serving these adjacent users expands your addressable…

    10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna

  • Race Car Framework

    Think of growth like a race car with an engine (growth loops), turbo boosters (one-time efforts), lubricants (optimization), and fuel (resources). Each requires…

    10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna

  • If you need to test everything, you're probably moving too slowly

    Growth teams can become paralyzed by testing every single initiative

    10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna

Disagreements

Is paid a real channel or a rented one?

Elena Verna

sorts channels by ownership before performance. Paid search and paid social run on an algorithm somebody else controls, so spending there funds a competitor's distribution and leaves you exposed to a policy change you had no say in. She makes building the earned channel, powered by virality and word of mouth, the growth team's first priority.

Alex Hormozi

puts paid ads alongside warm outreach, cold outreach and content as four equally valid channels, and tells founders to pick one and spend the first four hours of every day on it. On his account the failure is dabbling across all four, not choosing a channel someone else owns.

From Owned vs Rented Channels

Sources