logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2025
1h 21m

Reforge Growth Crash Course in 82 Minute...

Aakash Gupta
About this episode

Brian Balfour is the Godfather of Growth. He created the Growth Series at Reforge and was VP of Growth at Hubspot. In this episode, he shares a concise summary of Reforge's best growth ideas.

-

Brought to you by:

GibsonAI: Your AI Database Engineer

Vanta: Automate compliance, manage risk, and prove trust

-

We're covering:

Preview - 00:00:00

Retention is the Core of Growth – 00:02:38

Use Case Map to Define Retention Metric – 00:14:22

Ways to Improve Retention – 00:17:18

Retention as a Growth Strategy – 00:21:29

Evaluating Monetization – 00:24:53

Aligning the Value Metric with Monetization – 00:30:14

Why Funnels Are Dead – 00:34:10

AI Growth Loop – 00:37:06

Why Traditional PDCs Are Becoming Obsolete – 00:47:41

Collapse of the Prototype-Test-Learn Cycle – 00:52:43

Prototyping for PMs – 00:58:25

Measuring AI Products – 01:01:08

Understanding Problems with AI Product Strategy – 01:06:06

Overcoming Burnout and Coming Back Better – 01:15:56

-

Where to find Brian:

LinkedIn

Website

Reforge

-

Email productgrowthppp at gmail.com to discuss advertising or guest opportunities.

-

We have some great episodes coming with Colin Matthews (AI Prototyping Expert), Claire Vo (CPO at LaunchDarkly, Founder at ChatPRD), and Jason Cohen (Founder of WPEngine).

I’m so excited to share them with all of you.



Get full access to Product Growth at www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe
Up next
Yesterday
OpenAI Head of Product (Integrity) on the Future of AI Agents, PM, and AI threats
Check out the conversation on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.Brought to you by:* Jira Product Discovery: Build the right thing, reliably* AI PM Certification: Get $550 with code AAKASH550C7* The AI Evals Course for PMs: Get $1050 off with code ag-product-growth* Maven: Get $100 off m ... Show More
1h 21m
Aug 18
He built the top AI agent startup | Flo Crivello, Former PM, now CEO & Founder, Lindy AI
If you’ve ever said “I just wish I had an assistant who knew exactly how I think”... Lindy is that assistant. These agents aren’t demos. They’re real, customizable workflows anyone can build. No code.Flo Crivello (founder of Lindy and ex-Cruise/YC) joined us to show how his perso ... Show More
53m 10s
Aug 12
Teresa Torres' Step-by-Step Guide to AI Product Discovery
In today’s episode, we have one of the two voices I wanted most when I started this podcast: Teresa Torres. Alongside Marty Cagan, she was in my top guests to have.That’s because she has trained over 17,000 PMs in 100 countries.And in today’s episode, she’s breaking down one of t ... Show More
56m 5s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2024
Becoming an AI PM | Aman Khan (Arize AI, ex-Spotify, Apple, Cruise)
Aman Khan is Director of Product at Arize AI, an observability company for AI engineers at companies like Uber, Instacart, and Discord. Previously he was an AI Product Manager at Spotify on the ML Platform team, enabling hundreds of engineers to build and ship products across the ... Show More
1h 17m
Jul 8
The Robots Aren’t Coming—They’re Already Here (And They're Cheaper Than Your Project Engineer)
From the office to the job sites, AI is rapidly changing the construction industry just as any other. The newly developed AI tools currently available can help you to process data from variety of sources, providing you with insights to make smart decisions. One crucial piece of i ... Show More
21m 15s
May 1
The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO)
Michael Truell is the co-founder and CEO of Anysphere, the company behind Cursor—the fastest-growing AI code editor in the world, reaching $300 million in annual recurring revenue just two years after its launch. In this conversation, Michael shares his vision for the future, les ... Show More
1h 11m
Jul 8
How I'm Building a Zero-Employee Business with AI
Want to Automate your work with AI? Get the playbook here: https://clickhubspot.com/wgk Episode 66: Can you really build a zero-employee business with AI? Nathan Lands (https://x.com/NathanLands) sits down with John Rush (https://x.com/johnrushx), founder and self-proclaimed buil ... Show More
46 m
Jun 2024
#218 Designing AI Applications with Robb Wilson, Co-Founder & CEO at Onereach.ai
All the hype around generative AI means that every software maker seems to be stuffing chat interfaces into their products whenever they can. For the most part, the jury is still out on whether this is a good idea or not. However, design goes deeper than just the user interface, ... Show More
46m 36s
Sep 2024
AI is more than GenAI
GenAI is often what people think of when someone mentions AI. However, AI is much more. In this episode, Daniel breaks down a history of developments in data science, machine learning, AI, and GenAI in this episode to give listeners a better mental model. Don’t miss this one if y ... Show More
40m 3s
Aug 2024
He Automated His Sales Job With Ai… So His Boss Promoted Him
Ep. 254 What if you could automate the most mundane parts of your sales job and get promoted for it? Kipp and Kieran are joined by Ethan Dewaal, and dive into how AI is revolutionizing sales practices and boosting productivity. You will learn more on automating product questions ... Show More
40 m
Jul 1
What's Actually Coming in AI (From Someone Building It)
Episode 65: What’s actually coming next in AI, and how will it transform the fundamental infrastructure we rely on every day? Matt Wolfe (https://x.com/mreflow) sits down with DJ Sampath (https://x.com/djsampath), Senior Vice President of AI Products at Cisco, for a deep dive int ... Show More
21m 16s
Feb 2025
#281 Developing AI Products That Impact Your Business with Venky Veeraraghavan, Chief Product Officer at DataRobot
As AI continues to dominate industry conversations, the notion of AI readiness becomes a focal point for organizations. It's a multifaceted challenge that goes beyond technology, encompassing business processes and cultural shifts. For professionals, this means grappling with que ... Show More
38m 45s
Oct 2024
Behind the product: NotebookLM | Raiza Martin (Senior Product Manager, AI @ Google Labs)
Raiza Martin is a senior product manager for AI at Google Labs, where she leads the team behind NotebookLM, an AI-powered research tool that includes a delightful podcast-on-demand feature called “Audio Overviews.” NotebookLM started as a 20% project and has grown into a product ... Show More
48m 58s