Lloyd Alexander

Lambda’s Loop: A Growth Case Study

in Case Studies on February 19, 2019 February 20, 2019 4

This is Part 2 in a series deconstructing Lambda School’s growth. I have no affiliation with Lambda — I just think it’s an interesting business. In Part 1 of this series, I answered the question: “Can Lambda School become a $100M business?”. Given strong signals of all “four fits,” I argued why Lambda might be successful. In this post, I’ll focus on how they might pull this off. One mind-expanding moment for me as a growth marketer came when I was introduced to the concept of growth loops. While funnels are great for breaking a growth model down, loops do a better job of showing how acquisition, product usage, and monetization are interconnected parts of a growth system. Lambda is…

Waiting is Life

in Uncategorized on February 12, 2019 February 12, 2019 0

So how do we step up when our moment suddenly arises? My answer is to redefine the question. Not only do we have to be good at waiting, we have to love it. Because waiting is not waiting, it is life. Too many of us live without fully engaging our minds, waiting for that moment when our real lives begin.
Josh Waitzkin, The Art of Learning

Can Lambda School Become a $100M Business? A Growth Case Study

in Case Studies on February 5, 2019 February 7, 2019 5

This is Part 1 in a series deconstructing Lambda School’s growth. I have no affiliation with Lambda — I just think it’s an interesting business. When I graduated in 2014 with a 4-year marketing degree, I realized how little I learned that was directly applicable to the needs of employers. It wasn’t until spending an entire summer taking online courses that I landed my first job in the tech industry. Since then, I’ve been deeply interested in any novel approaches to education. From MOOCs to coding bootcamps, I knew there must be a better way. That’s why when I recently heard about Lambda School, I was intrigued. If you haven’t heard of them, Lambda School is essentially a coding bootcamp…

What is Essential?

in Uncategorized on December 22, 2015 December 22, 2015 0

…whatever decision or challenge or crossroads you face in your life, simply ask yourself, “What is essential?” Eliminate everything else.

Greg Mckeown, Essentialism

How to Drive Growth by Making Your Product More Addictive

in Uncategorized on July 28, 2015 February 3, 2019 2

“If you don’t understand your retention, then nothing else matters.”Brian Balfour (VP Growth, HubSpot) How do you improve retention? Well, you need to keep bringing users back. The problem is, users don’t do this by themselves. Human behaviour is incredibly hard to change, and we need to rewire brains. We need to create habits. In the following post, I’ll show you how to build habits around your product by critiquing a real-life startup. On the way, I’ll introduce you to a proven habits model and reveal a handful of tactics that can be applied to any product. See the full post on Medium.

Mistakes of Ambition

in Uncategorized on February 6, 2015 February 6, 2015 0

All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it’s impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively.

Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

7 Modern Marketing Frameworks

in Uncategorized on January 29, 2015 February 6, 2015 1

Marketing is evolving incredibly fast these days and it’s time we set down old frameworks like the “4 P’s” in favour of some modern ones. In this post I outline 7 modern marketing frameworks that every startup should be using right now to grow their business.

Modernize Your Marketing Degree: 6 Tips from a Grad Who Learned the Hard Way

in Uncategorized on January 5, 2015 January 9, 2015 0

If you’re a marketing student in 2014, you should be stoked. Marketing is one of the most exciting fields to work in right now, and it’s rapidly evolving. So rapidly in fact, that your school’s curriculum can’t even keep up. The sad truth is that even top university marketing programs will leave you ill-prepared for the real world. A degree in marketing doesn’t cut it anymore—at least not without a little modernization. Shopify: We Don’t Hire Marketing Grads It all dawned on me in my final year of university. With graduation on the horizon, like many seniors I began putting my feelers out for a job. And, like many Ottawa students, one of the first companies I had my eye…

Stretch

in Uncategorized on October 31, 2014 October 31, 2014 0

The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch. He takes on the assignment that will bear him into unchartered waters, compel him to explore unconscious parts of himself.

Is he scared? Hell, yes. He’s petrified.

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

The MOOC Revolution is Just Getting Started

in Uncategorized on October 25, 2014 February 6, 2015 0

There’s been a lot of debate over whether MOOCs are simply a passing craze or whether they’ll change higher education for good. While I won’t go so far as to say we’re looking at the end of class in the traditional sense, I think we’ve got some exciting stuff to look forward to. With a deep interest in this industry, and having pretty much become an online learning junkie since grabbing my brick-and-mortar university degree in May, I’ve come to realize that MOOCs have a lot of potential—just maybe not in the way many had predicted. Capitalism 101: Competition Breeds Quality As any commerce student will tell you after their first semester: competition is a great thing for consumers. It drives…