The Growth Show

When you're up against companies with household names and centuries of experience, how do you win market share? It's simple: Find out what they don't do well ... and then do that thing very well. That philosophy is what has made Robinhood a fierce competitor in their space. They created a mobile app that makes it easy to buy and sell stocks - for free. In an industry where people typically pay $10 per transaction, Robinhood is quickly gaining traction with both brand new and experienced investors.

In the beginning, Wistia had just a few guys working out of an apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It took them a year to make their first dollar, and then another year to sign on 10 customers. But the folks at Wistia never gave up. Nearly 10 years later, the company's persistence has paid off in spades: They have 200,000 customers using their video marketing platform, and they've hired more than 60 people to grow the company even more.

Pink mustaches. Fist bumps. A seat up front. These quirks help differentiate Lyft as the friendly, human option in an uber-competitive industry. And it's working. Today, the company is one of the fastest-growing ride-sharing apps on the market. We chat with Lyft CMO Kira Wampler about surviving (and thriving) in a competitive industry, scaling non-scalable parts of a company, and hiring the best people for a high-growth team.

Ah, company culture. It's the management buzzword du jour. And it's often the overlooked, compartmentalized, and misunderstood element to building a hyper-growth company. How should you actually go about building a company culture people love? To find an answer, we spoke with Zappos' Jon Wolske. Listen to this episode to learn about the company's unique approach to management, organizational structure, and most importantly, culture.

Kai Kight's background is anything but typical. When he was three, he began learning the violin, later going on to perform in places like the White House and the Great Wall of China. Then, he went on to earn an engineering degree from Stanford University's d. school where he was entrenched in the entrepreneurship community of Silicon Valley.

It began as a bet in a bar. A group of friends got together and decided to see who could grow the coolest mustache. Over a decade later, this bet has blossomed into a global movement called Movember. Each November, millions of men all over the world grow mustaches to raise awareness and funds for men's health initiatives.

Visual content: Everyone knows they need it, but many people lack the skills or tools to do it well. That is, until Canva entered the picture in 2013. The company created an easy-to-use design platform to help the average person create beautiful content. Two years later, it's acquired nearly 7 million users and secured famous investors like Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson. How'd Canva grow so darn fast?

Would you ever start a company that competed with Google? Back in 2007, that's exactly what Gabriel Weinberg did. He created DuckDuckGo, an alternative search engine to Google, and has been chipping away at Google's massive market share ever since. In the past two years, DuckDuckGo has grown nearly 600% and even reached profitability. How does DuckDuckGo successfully compete against one of the biggest and most recognizable companies in the world?

In a world where attention spans are shortening and there's more and more content than ever, how should a company grow its brand online? Enter Medium. Part platform and part publisher, the company's out to change the way people create and discover content on the web. This week, we chat with Sophie Moura, the head of B2B partnerships at Medium, to get tips for leaders on building a content strategy on the platform.

Technology has completely changed the way people work -- especially leaders at high-growth companies. How should managers approach hiring, growth, and management today? This week, we sit down with Charlene Li, Founder and CEO of Altimeter Group, to chat about her philosophy on these top leadership concerns.

It all started with an email from a friend, mentioning this thing called a "blog." Darren Rowse learned of this new trend taking the internet by storm - and he wanted to try it to build a business. Thirteen years later, Darren Rowse has built two extremely successful blogs - Problogger and Digital Photography School - that amass over 5 million visitors each month.

It's natural to be afraid of doubt - especially when you're leading a team. You want to be the calm, cool, and collected leader ... but inside you're freaking out. Turns out, some of the best leaders and innovators are those who embrace doubt. In this episode of The Growth Show, Kevin Eyres, an executive coach for hyper-growth companies and former executive at LinkedIn, joins us to talk about the power of doubt, and how it can make you a more innovative leader.

Ever wonder why Google is so successful? According to Todd Rowe, Managing Director at Google, it all comes down to placing big bets on smart people - and giving them the space to achieve those bets. In this special episode of The Growth Show that was recorded live at INBOUND 2015, Todd gives us a great overview of Google’s philosophy on growth.

The year was 2006. Sophia Amoruso was sitting in her apartment in a bathrobe and selling vintage clothes on eBay. She was the “one man band” behind Nasty Gal: She found the vintage clothes, styled the outfits, modeled them for product pictures, shipped her products to eager customers, and collected feedback along the way. Years later, Nasty Gal has become one of the hottest fashion brands for young women.

On this live-recorded episode from INBOUND 2015, Jonah Peretti, founder of BuzzFeed & The Huffington Post, joins us to chat about BuzzFeed's insane growth and how viral content spreads.