GE 256: Max Lytvyn Reveals How He Grew Grammarly to 10M+ Active Daily Users without Funding (podcast)

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: Max Lytvyn Reveals How He Grew Grammarly to 10M+ Active Daily Users without Funding TRANSCRIPT PDF

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• [00:42] Before we jump into today’s interview, please leave a review and rating and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast!
• [02:13] Max is originally from the Ukraine.
• [02:24] He began working with tech in the early ’90s by building his own computer and picking up coding.
• [02:45] In 2002, he moved to the business side of tech.
• [02:56] He has lived in Canada and the US most of his adult life.
• [03:08] Max started a plagiarism detection service with a friend.
• [03:45] They did research into why people plagiarize.
• [04:15] This is what spurred the idea for Grammarly. At the time, the idea seemed “out there”.
• [04:45] Grammarly was broken down into stages. They started with spelling, then branched out into grammar, clarity, style, tone, etc.
• [05:20] Grammarly has over 10 million daily active users.
• [05:43] In November of last year, they made over 4.5 billion suggestions.
• [05:53] The team is 150 people spread across three different offices.
• [06:05] Grammarly has a free product and a paid product.
• [06:12] The premium service runs $30/month or $145/year.
• [06:46] Students use Grammarly because so much of their success is dependent upon their writing.
• [07:07] Professionals use it for similar reasons.
• [07:25] Others use it to punch updating profiles or job postings.
• [07:45] Grammarly started in 2009.
• [08:10] They bootstrapped for a very long time.
• [08:25] Because of this, their growth was slower than if they had accepted funding.
• [08:55] The first few years they were concerned with survival. Everything had to have a quick payback.
• [10:48] They focused on getting enough revenue to continue existing and building. They finally gained enough surplus to grow.
• [11:30] Their payback period was nearly instantaneous (at least in terms of marketing).
• [12:50] They approached acquiring customers from two different directions.
• [13:00] They did B2B sales, attended conferences and trade shows, etc.
• [13:20] They marketed through social media and paid ads directly to consumers.
• [13:45] Content marketing is an instantaneous feedback loop.
• [14:15] Based on reactions to ads about specific features, they could gauge the worthiness of those functions of Grammarly.
• [15:10] As soon as you get good at something, you scale; you scale until it stops working.
• [15:33] No one thing is responsible for Grammarly’s success.
• [16:24] Hiring a great team is helpful, but the culture and processes are also important to product success.
• [16:51] Focusing on the process of trying new things has helped them with customer acquisition. “There is no magic bullet”.
• [17:34] There is always a new struggle.
• [18:03] They struggled with finding the right marketing channels.
• [18:49] Doing bigger things and looking at aggregate change, understanding the value of brand are all things that helped them succeed as a company.
• [20:00] After doing everything, you eventually realize you need to specialize and delegate tasks.
• [20:45] Creating leaders at your company is the next important step.
• [21:10] They have engineering teams in San Francisco, Kiev, and New York. Each team in independent.
• [21:35] The Kiev team is the largest.
• [22:01] The time difference is a challenge.
• [22:28] They don’t want people to compromise their lifestyles, so they overcome the time difference by making sure teams aren’t’ beholden to each other.
• [23:38] Max recommends the books Mindset and Grit. These books don’t give specific answers, but give you values by which to find solutions.

Resources From This Interview:

• Max on LinkedIn
• Max on Twitter
• Must-read books:
  • Mindset by Carol S. Dwek
  • Grit by Angela Duckworth 

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