Hey, everyone! In today’s episode, I share the mic with Max Lytvyn, co-founder of Grammarly, a grammar-check program that focuses on clarity and effectiveness of phrasing. Basically, it’s spell-checking on steroids.
Tune in to hear how the idea for Grammarly was born from a plagiarism detection service, how Max took the company from a bootstrapped startup to 10 million daily active users, and how he manages teams in three different time zones.
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:
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