where growth happens

In startup land, we romanticize our three-letter acronyms: MQL, SQL, PQL, CAC, LTV. But these abbreviations often mask a fundamental misunderstanding of what growth really means and how it should function within an organization.

Let me cut through the noise and share what growth means to me - and why most startups lack depth in understanding their growth function.

Growth is inherently cross-functional. It happens at the intersection of Product, Marketing, and Sales. Sometimes, it even happens at the intersection of customer service. Yet all too often, we see growth siloed within Marketing or Sales departments. This is like trying to win a relay race with just one runner.

Let's break it down with revenue as our North Star metric. Revenue has three core components:

• Acquisition (new customer revenue)

• Retention (existing customer revenue)

• Expansion (upsell/cross-sell revenue)

By traditional thinking:

• Marketing owns acquisition

• Product owns retention

• Sales owns expansion

Sounds about right? But here lies the problem - growth doesn't work in silos:

• More MQLs won't save you if your sales process is broken

• World class sales prospecting is useless if your positioning is off

• Closing more customers is a red herring if your product churns like a leaky bucket

So what's the solution?

With the luxury of resources, one might build a cross-functional growth team consisting of a Growth Marketer, Growth PM, and Data Analyst. But, assuming that’s not in the cards, next best is to ensure your Marketing, Sales, and Product teams understand—and actively collaborate on—growth as a shared responsibility.

Because here's the truth: Growth isn't a department. It's not a role. It's a culture.

Growth is an outcome of well-orchestrated functions working together toward a common goal. Like a symphony, one instrument playing louder won't make the music better - it might actually make it worse.

The next time you're planning your growth strategy, ask yourself: Are we really working together, or are we just working harder in our separate lanes?

In startups, there are no universal rules—but some principles hold true. And the principle that growth requires participation from everyone is one of them.