Where to Start with Sean Ellis
Sean Ellis coined the term “growth hacker” in 2010 while trying to find his replacement at Dropbox. He needed someone whose entire focus was growth, not traditional marketing, and realized the role did not have a name yet. Before that moment of naming, Ellis had already built the growth engines at LogMeIn (from launch to IPO) and Uproar, and would go on to lead early growth at Eventbrite, Lookout, and other companies that reached multi-billion dollar valuations. He co-founded GrowthHackers.com, which became the largest online community for growth professionals with nearly two million users. His work transformed growth from an informal practice into a structured discipline with its own methodology, teams, and metrics.
Start here
Hacking Growth: How Today's Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success
Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown · 320 pages · 2017 · Moderate
Themes: growth hacking, rapid experimentation, product-led growth, acquisition funnels, retention strategies
The definitive playbook for growth hacking, co-written with Morgan Brown. Ellis and Brown lay out the complete methodology for building growth teams and running rapid experimentation across the full customer funnel.
Why Start Here
This is the only book Sean Ellis has written, and it represents the sum of everything he learned building growth engines at some of the most successful startups of the past two decades. Rather than a memoir or thought piece, it is a practical operating manual. Ellis and Brown walk you through how to set up a cross-functional growth team, how to identify your product’s core value moment, how to design and prioritize experiments, and how to systematically optimize acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and referral.
The book draws on case studies from companies Ellis worked with directly, including Dropbox, Uber, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and BitTorrent. Each example illustrates a specific technique: how Dropbox used its referral program to grow 3,900% in fifteen months, how Pinterest redesigned onboarding to boost activation, and how Uber expanded city by city using localized growth loops.
What to Expect
A comprehensive 320-page guide that balances strategic thinking with actionable tactics. The writing is clear and business-focused, aimed at founders, product managers, and marketers. Some familiarity with digital products and startup terminology is helpful but not strictly necessary.