6 builders who never spoke to each other
Pick the two numbers you will actually act on
Name a small set of figures the whole business is judged on, ideally one leading number everyone can point at, and let the rest go unwatched. Which ones depends on the model: trials started against trial-to-paid rate, count of individual sales for an education business, or seats at each tier plus departures and their reasons, reviewed monthly rather than discovered at tax time.
The method
- 01
Track only two numbers, trials started per month and the trial-to-paid rate, and if the conversion rate is stable, put all your effort into trial volume.
- 02
Cut down to the two or three numbers that most directly move your business and ignore the rest, because narrowing the focus is what produces the impact.
- 03
Point the whole growth team at one number, such as self-serve revenue, rather than separate departmental metrics.
- 04
Record four figures month by month: how many customers sit at each price tier, how many left and what each departure was tied to, the net change, and how many trial visitors came back plus how often.
- 05
Watch forward-looking growth numbers monthly, customers added and email subscribers gained, instead of discovering at tax time whether the year beat the last one.
What it returned
- 75%
Transistor's trial-to-paid rate sits steadily at 75%, which is why new trials are the company's single lever on revenue.
- 1,000
He set 1,000 Swipe Files members as the level that would remove any need for consulting, and tracked 169 members as 16.9 percent of the way there.
- 2,513
Justin's store made 2,513 sales in 2017, taking revenue from $146,000 in 2016 to $190,000, split as $75,000 Marketing for Developers, $54,000 MegaMaker Club, $44,000 Tiny Wins, $1,300 Jolt.
Transistor tracks new trial signups daily in a #marketing Slack channel.
Sources
- 2020 Year In Review | Corey HainesCorey Haines · corey.co · What went well this year? · 2021-01-01
- Coworking Churn RatesAlex Hillman · dangerouslyawesome.com · We need data. · 2010-01-01
- The Mindset Shifts That Took Me From Freelancer to Productized Business Owner - Double Your FreelancingBrian Casel · doubleyourfreelancing.com · Growth Mindset · 2015-09-02
- 2017 year in reviewJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Revenue grew by 23% · undated
- Where are these signups coming from?Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Where are these signups coming from? · undated
- Do you need marketing tracking and automation?Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Ask for credit card up-front, and give a 14-day free trial · undated
- The full story of “the one important thing” for startupsJason Cohen · longform.asmartbear.com · The full story of “the one important thing” for startups · 2011-10-03
- 📱 How a $2M/Year Job App Grew Using Unconventional Marketing Tactics? - Trends.vcDru Riley · trends.vc · 🎧 Listen To · 2025-10-22
- Overview of Product-Led Growth (PLG)Greg Kogan · gkogan.co · Data and Success Metrics · 2020-12-23
- The most important consumer metrics to trackLenny Rachitsky · lennysnewsletter.com · The most important consumer metrics to track · 2021-11-23
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
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