Hacking Growth is Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown’s attempt to formalize the growth hacking process that Ellis helped pioneer at companies like Dropbox, LogMeIn, and Eventbrite. The book moves beyond the buzzword and lays out a repeatable methodology for how companies can systematically drive growth through rapid experimentation.
The framework is organized around the growth funnel: acquisition (getting users), activation (getting them to experience value), retention (keeping them), and monetization (generating revenue). For each stage, Ellis and Brown describe how to identify the biggest lever, generate experiment ideas, prioritize and run tests, and analyze results. The process is designed to be run by a cross-functional growth team that includes members from engineering, marketing, data science, and product.
The book draws examples from companies like Airbnb, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Uber, and Yelp, showing specific experiments that moved their growth metrics. Some of these examples have been widely discussed elsewhere, but the book adds context about how the experiments were identified and executed, which is often more instructive than the results themselves.
For founders, the most useful section is likely the early chapter on finding product-market fit, which Ellis argues must come before any growth effort. His “must-have” survey (asking users how they’d feel if they could no longer use the product) is a simple tool for measuring whether you’re ready to invest in growth. The experimental process he describes is also practical: most startups can start running growth experiments with minimal infrastructure.
The writing is clear and systematic. The book reads like a playbook, which is both its strength and its weakness. Some readers will appreciate the step-by-step structure. Others might find it somewhat formulaic, especially if they’ve already read widely on growth marketing. But as a single reference that covers the full growth process from first principles, it is one of the more complete books on the subject.
