The Growth Trap
I used to be addicted to growth. I’d wake up and check our sign-ups before I checked my email. I lived for the thrill of a new logo, the spike on an analytics chart, the high of telling investors we’d hit a new user milestone.
We were following the playbook. We ran ads. We A/B tested landing pages. We hired a hungry sales rep. And for a while, it worked. The numbers went up.
Then they didn’t. The growth curve flattened out. We were pouring more money into the top of the funnel, but the business wasn’t getting any bigger.
I realized something: we were doing it wrong. We were so obsessed with pouring water into the bucket, we never stopped to notice it was riddled with holes.
The Problem with "Growth"
Most advice about startup growth is a trap. It’s all about “acquisition channels,” “viral loops,” and “lead magnets.” It’s no wonder founders burn out chasing metrics that look good on a slide deck but don't actually build a business.
The real issue isn’t that you’re bad at marketing—it’s that you’re playing the wrong game. You’re celebrating the art of getting customers in the front door while a silent majority are sneaking out the back.
I once knew a startup that was a masterclass in this kind of “Growth Theater.” Their sales team was incredible. They could sell ice to an igloo. But the moment a customer signed, they were forgotten. The onboarding was a mess, the product was buggy, and getting support was impossible.
When customers complained, the founders didn't see a problem to fix. They saw an inconvenience. Their solution? Go find new customers. They were addicted to the chase. They measured success by how fast they could pour, not how much water was actually in the bucket.
Unsurprisingly, they burned through their funding and died. This isn’t a rare story. It’s the default.
The Number That's Secretly Killing You
Let's talk about the hole in your bucket. It has a name you’re probably ignoring.
It’s called churn.
I hear founders with 10% monthly churn say things like, “It’s fine, we’re early stage.”
Let me be very clear: That’s not fine. That is a house fire.
A 10% monthly churn rate means you are losing 72% of your customers every year. You have to replace almost three-quarters of your user base just to stand still. Forget growth; you’re on a treadmill to nowhere.
Let’s do the math. Two companies start with 1,000 customers and each acquires 100 new ones every month.
Company A (The Growth Addict): 10% monthly churn.
Company B (The Retention Obsessive): 3% monthly churn.
After a year, Company A—despite acquiring 1,200 new customers—has fewer customers than it started with. Company B has almost doubled in size.
That's the brutal math of the leaky bucket. You can’t outrun high churn forever. Eventually, you run out of money, market, or reputation.
What Actually Works: Three Fixes That Don't Involve Spreadsheets
The companies that break through the plateau aren’t better at acquisition. They’re just better at not letting customers leave. They stop building acquisition engines and start building retention machines.
Admit Your Product Is the Problem (Not Your Marketing)
High churn is rarely a marketing problem. It’s a product problem. It’s the gap between the promise you made to get the sale and the reality of using your thing.
You can't fix a broken product with a clever email sequence. Churn is your product telling you, “I’m not good enough to stick around for.” Listen to it.
The key: Your roadmap shouldn’t come from a list of competitor features. It should come from the reasons people are leaving.
Find the “Aha!” Moment and Get People There, Fast
Every user who signs up is skeptical. They’re looking for the one thing that makes them go, “Oh, now I get it.” That’s the "Aha!" moment. It’s the point where they stop being a tourist and start being a resident.
Your entire onboarding flow should be a ruthless, obsessive mission to get every single user to that moment as quickly as possible.
The key: Stop dumping users into a blank slate. Guide them by the hand to the one action that delivers the most value.
Talk to the People Who Dumped You
Your churned users are a goldmine of uncomfortable truths. Don’t send them a multiple-choice exit survey. That’s lazy.
Pick up the phone. Or send a personal email. Ask one simple question: “What’s the one thing we could have done differently that would have made you stay?”
Then be quiet and listen. The answers will be painful. They will also be your playbook for the next six months.
The key: You learn more from five honest conversations with people who left than you do from 1,000 survey responses from people who stayed.
The Real Rules of Retention
Building a business that people don't want to leave isn't about hacks. It's about a fundamental shift in how you operate.
Your support team is your secret weapon. Stop treating support as a cost center. They talk to your users more than anyone. They know what’s broken, what’s confusing, and what’s frustrating. Empower them to be the voice of the customer inside your company.
Close the loop. When you ship a feature someone asked for, email them personally and tell them. The feeling of being heard is more powerful than any marketing campaign.
Celebrate your best customers. Your power users are your real evangelists. Feature them in case studies. Send them a t-shirt. Make them feel like the heroes they are. They’ll do your selling for you.
"But I Don't Have Any Customers to Retain!"
I hear this all the time. "This is great, but I need growth first."
This is a trap. It’s not about choosing retention over acquisition. It’s about earning the right to grow.
Think of it as the Rule of 100.
For your first 100 customers, your only job is to make them so happy they can’t imagine leaving. Talk to them. Fix their problems. Build what they need. Your acquisition should be slow and deliberate.
Once you have a core of 100 users who are sticking around and telling their friends, then you've fixed the biggest holes in your bucket. Then you've earned the right to turn on the firehose.
Pouring marketing spend on top of a leaky product is just setting money on fire.
The Bottom Line
Sustainable growth isn't about finding the next trick to get more sign-ups. It’s about building something so valuable that people can’t bear to leave.
When you focus on keeping the customers you have, you create a gravity well. New customers get pulled in not by your ads, but by the happiness of your existing users.
The best growth strategy doesn't feel like a strategy at all. It feels like building something people actually love.
And that’s not something you can hack—it’s just building a good business.