What can a small team do instead of hiring a head of growth?
Make growth everyone's job, with one number. Set a company target, pick up to 3 goals, and run small experiments under each, measured in the tools you already use. You get proof of what works before you pay a salary for someone to guess. Hire for growth once you know which channel to scale.
By Nomiki Petrolla, founder of Theanna
Why do small teams think they need a head of growth?
Because everyone is busy and nobody can say what's working. The team posts, sends emails, runs an event and tweaks the onboarding, and at the end of the month there are three different answers to what grew the business. Hiring someone to own growth looks like the fix.
But the problem usually isn't a missing person. It's missing proof. A new hire walks into the same mess, with the same guesses, and needs months to learn your customers before they can test anything.
“You don't have a people problem. You have a proof problem. A new hire is just one more person guessing, with a bigger salary.”
What does a head of growth do, really?
Strip away the title and the job is four things, every week:
- Pick the one number the company is growing.
- Decide what to test next to move it.
- Run the tests, or get the team to run them.
- Measure what worked, stop what didn't, and tell everyone.
What are the alternatives?
Hire a head of growth
- What you get:
- One owner, full time
- Watch out for:
- Months to ramp up, and one person still guessing until tests prove otherwise
A fractional growth lead
- What you get:
- Senior thinking, part time
- Watch out for:
- Someone outside the team picks the tests, so the learning leaves with them
A growth agency
- What you get:
- Hands to run campaigns
- Watch out for:
- Measured on activity and channel numbers, not always your revenue
Your team runs experiments, with a system
- What you get:
- Everyone tests toward one number, and the results add up
- Watch out for:
- Needs a shared target and someone to keep the weekly rhythm
A spreadsheet
- What you get:
- Free, and you can start today
- Watch out for:
- Numbers get typed in late or not at all once a few people use it
How does a team of 2 to 5 run growth without a growth hire?
- 01
Set one company target
The one number the whole company is growing, with a date. For example, $1M ARR by December.
- 02
Pick up to 3 goals
The big bets that get you there, like outbound pipeline or partner revenue. Each gets its own number and an owner.
- 03
Run 2 or 3 small experiments under each goal
Each one has a starting number, an end date and a clear result. Whoever owns the goal runs them.
- 04
Read the results from your tools every week
Revenue from Stripe, sign-ups from Google Analytics, demos from Calendly. Nobody types numbers into a sheet.
- 05
Every 3 weeks, keep the winners and cut the rest
What worked becomes the new normal and the next test builds on it. What didn't gets stopped.
“I go through them with my team every three weeks and we trim: that's not important anymore, that's not relevant anymore, the data told us it's not.”
How does Theanna run growth with two people?
Theanna is two people: Nomiki Petrolla, the founder, and Kyle, who builds the product. Nomiki runs sales, marketing, ops and social, and there's a number they have to hit.
So they run growth the way the steps above describe, in Theanna itself: one company target, a few goals, and experiments under each, read from Stripe, Calendly, Customer.io and Google Analytics every week. Theanna is built for teams like that: small, where everyone touches everything.
“You're elite generalists. Everyone touches everything.”
When should you hire a head of growth?
- You know which channel works, from your own experiments, and you need someone to scale it.
- You have more good experiments than your team can run each week.
- The founder is the bottleneck on every growth decision.
- Before that, the money buys more proof as experiments than as a salary.
Questions teams ask
Should a startup hire a head of growth?
Not first. Hire one once your own experiments show which channel works and you need someone to scale it. Before that, a new hire is guessing like everyone else, just with a salary.
Is a fractional head of growth a good alternative?
It can be, for senior advice. The risk is that someone outside the team picks the tests, so the learning leaves when they do. It works best when the team runs the experiments and keeps the results in one place.
Can software replace a growth hire?
Software can pick experiments from your numbers, track them and measure them in your tools. Your team still runs them. For a team of 2 to 5, that's often enough until you know what to scale.
Who should own growth on a small team?
Everyone owns the company target. Each goal under it gets one owner, who runs the experiments for that goal and reports the result each week.
What's the price of Theanna for teams?
The Team plan starts at $999 a month for up to 3 people. Bigger teams book a demo.