Here are the 20 Growth Mentors of April

1. Alex Scott

Describe yourself

I am passionate about building human centred experiences, and help test, learn and grow business based on solid customer and data insights

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I want to share my product management experience with startups so they can achieve their full potential.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A growth mindset is knowing that you can learn and adapt to overcome any obstacle.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Hiring and developing a product team.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

I grew a product team from zero to 14 people over just a few months. During COVID. My employee survey showed people were not feeling like part of a team and there was no camaraderie. I created a weekly coffee chat, came up with games (like the WFH scavenger hunt) and shared thought provoking content (like naval@ tweetstorms) with my team. Over time this became a highlight of the week and my team survey this month is showing 90%+ satisfaction.

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2. Anthony English

Describe yourself

I’ve made the transition from deep tech expertise to marketing. These days, I’m less in love with the tech tools and more focused on the value seen through the client’s eyes (using their own words).

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

To help other technical people get a shortcut to marketing and messaging, like I’ve learned to do.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A huge amount of tech work is about finding failures – looking into the details. Having a growth mindset instead is about setting a few lightning rods out there, and knowing that most won’t catch, but that’s okay. You can plant seeds, knowing that none of them will come up overnight, many of them will fail, but some will sprout and produce a rich harvest.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

How to switch their message from “here’s what I do” to “what problem am I solving (and why does your client care)?” Too many good technicians leave the client to figure out why their services would fit the client’s situation. It’s easy to fix this, and I love to help tech people to do that for themselves.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

A client was finding her proposals weren’t getting a response. She was getting ghosted, and tried proposal templates, tracking software and other ways to follow up. I suggested she change her language before offering the proposal, and then ditch the written proposals for short videos, which made them more of a dialogue, and I showed her how to do it. She nailed her first video proposal (at a much higher rate) and she was able to stop writing long proposals that went unanswered.

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3. Emilia Korczynska

Describe yourself

I’m a passionate SaaS marketer with a strong focus on content marketing, SEO and Product Marketing. I’m happy to talk about your content strategy as well as Product Adoption strategy – how you intend to market your product to your users once you have acquired them.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

To pay forward the free mentorship I have received, and to make more connections with like-minded people.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Growth mindset to me means the willingness to constantly learn and adapt, listen to people with moe experience, as well as to change your mind in the light of new evidence.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

SaaS product adoption strategy – I find it an underexplored and yet very important are of marketing, especially important for membership businesses.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

“Focus on what works – put 80% of your efforts into SEO and ignore all of the gimmicky tactics” – wow. Why haven’t I come up with it earlier?

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4. Eric Goeres

Describe yourself

I’m a creative at heart, with a deep streak of entrepreneurial, product and marketing acumen. I can help develop highly-engaging brands that users love. I’ve brought great things to life at many large companies, but prefer working with founders, and active “owner/operators” of small companies.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I want to help move people along their path; it’s what I do.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Where do you want your initiative to be 4 weeks/12 weeks/24 weeks from now? Describe it. Think bigger. Describe it. Now — what do we need to do to go from here to there? It’s not that simple, but it’s not that far off.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

If I could mentor on only one topic, it would be helping people leave their current comfort zone and heading toward future comfort zones. Repeatedly.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

I truly believe it’s not about me — it’s about the other person. My “damn, I’m good” moments happen when my sessions trigger big epiphanies on the other side of the session.

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5. Greg Micek

Describe yourself

Hi, I’m Greg. I’m a cofounder, software engineer, engineering manager, and entrepreneur. I have experience being the first software engineer at a startup, leading and growing an engineering team, starting a support team, and more. I’ve founded multiple “microcompanies” as well as larger endeavors. I enjoy working with and teaching others what I’ve learned along the way.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

As an entrepreneur and software engineer, I love starting companies and want to share my knowledge with others.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Ambition, humility, and a willingness to change and pivot are the biggest traits that I believe lead to quick growth and success.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Entrepreneurship and creating a software startup. I love working with people and going from an idea initially shared over coffee to building a product to acquiring first customers.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

Software Architecture and Design. I had to personally write some software to do optical character recognition (OCR) on a series of images of forms. To improve accuracy, I used computer vision to cut each form into separate images, applied OCR to the smaller images, and then post-processed differently depending on the type of expected content in those regions. This process significantly improved the ability to accurately read data.

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6. Jessy Conflon

Describe yourself

Hey I am Jessy. I specialise in growth & digital marketing for B2B Fintechs/Tech businesses. I also co-founded and run a Digital Marketing Agency (www.yaystarter.com). I am a data-driven and customer-focused growth marketer eager to help ambitious Fintechs grow. I specialise in Lead Generation campaign, B2B paid ads campaigns and Email Nurturing programmes (Hubspot, Active Campaign,etc.).

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I’ve been a mentee of growth mentor for about a year now, as I wanted to see what this side of the marketplace first and ensure I would be able to provide value to mentees once I’d be ready to start mentoring. I am now in a position where I have enough time to dedicate a few hours a week to help out others who are working in growth marketing specifically in the Fintech Industry. I have over 5 years of experience in the Finance/Fintech space and my agency currently works with a few Fintechs as well, making me quite knowledgeable in this space. I specialise in B2B Fintechs to be precise, and can help with Awareness, Acquisition and Activation part of the funnel specifically.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

It would be providing support with Growth Marketing strategy and Product-Market-Fit as these are usually the 2 main challenges faced by early-stage Fintech/Tech businesses and something I tremendously enjoy working on!

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

“Having a growth mindset about constantly experimenting, analysing, learning, tweaking, testing again and repeat it all over again – not only at the marketing level, but also at the product and business level too. Having a growth mindset is critical to have a slight chance of ever getting to product-market-fit.”

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

Supporting a client of ours who ran a Fintech business to identify the best go-to-market route (from B2C to B2B), after running a few super quick experiments that highlighted that on the B2C front they were unlikely to ever get to product-market-fit. Their product was not something people were ready to pay for themselves, but their employers however would definitely consider this as employee-perk. It saved them months of running expensive B2C campaigns to only realise later that the B2B route was the only possible option for them.

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7. Justin Strackany

Describe yourself

I am the Chief Customer Officer at SecureLink. I started as Employee #1, and have had stints building sales, lead-gen, and customer success engines to help us grow from $1M to $35M. If you are looking to build a predictable revenue engine to build your company OR are looking to take the next step in your career journey from individual contributor to C-suite employee, I believe I can provide a lot of value.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I love sharing my knowledge to empower people to succeed and take the next step in their careers.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

I believe a growth mindset entails never being comfortable with the status quo. Instead of taking a current situation at face-value, you ask questions, look for gaps, and try to find ways to improve yourself and the environment you work in.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Managing your boss to optimize your success at work.

Describe an out-of-the-box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

I generated a lead generation campaign revolving around pairs of socks that doubled our annual revenue.

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8. Kenny Hoang

Describe yourself

I ‘m the Founder of Combatant, a Growth Agency that helps e-commerce and info product brands owned by MMA Fighters and Martial Artists. We specialize in helping bootstrap brands go from $0 to $100,000 and $100,000 to $5M through Marketing Strategy, Paid Media and Creative Execution.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

To help people on the path and feel good as a bonus.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Growth mindset is inner growth of self and external contribution to others.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

I’d share my experience with e-commerce and info-product Early Stage Marketing Strategy and Facebook Paid Media.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

Increasing Brand Equity like a Fortune 500 company with a bootstrapped budget. You can do this by retargeting purchasers using Facebook’s Reach Objective with a frequency cap. You’d mix branded, organic content without a call to action. Everything from testimonials to authoritative content and entertaining content to branded content.

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9. Kuba Rdzak

Describe yourself

Hello! I’m Kuba — growth marketer, media buyer, certified team manager, Asana Ambassador with MSc from the best business university in Poland. I have helped 100+ clients either scale or find their PMF & go-to-market on multiple ad platforms. I also have a good understanding of technical aspects like APIs, front web dev, tracking, CRO, web analytics and automations.

In just one sentence, why do you want to become a growth mentor?

I love helping people – I’m a volunteer in 2 of the biggest charity organisations in Poland and I’d love to help others with marketing problems as well as younger folks as I think that’s an interesting niche to mentor younger people how to start or accelerate their career in growth.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

View challenges as opportunities. Make a new goal for every goal accomplished. Take risks. Place effort before talent. Portray criticism as positive. Value the process over the end result. Use data.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Auditing, optimising, testing & full-funnel approach on Facebook Ads to stop wasting money, acquire customers and grow.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

In order to prove to the client that narrow, persona targeting on Facebook Ads is not very efficient for them, I implemented an account structure where we could easily separate “testing” and “performance” campaigns. It was clear after several days that in their case, persona targeting was 3-4x more expensive that the benchmark. Client agreed and allowed us to move away from the idea of persona testing.

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10. Laurence Paquette

Describe yourself

Hi! My name is Laurence and I am a Canadian living in Denmark. For the last 15 years, I have worked across multiple fields including Market Research, Marketing, Digital Marketing, Communication, Public Affairs, Strategy, Digital Development, Digital implementation, Change Management, Budgeting and Management. I have built my own teams and I have worked with people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse skills.

In just one sentence, please tell us why you want to become a growth mentor?

I love coaching and mentoring. Earlier in my career I had great mentors and I want to pay it forward. I am a people’s person and I love to connect on a 1-1 level.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

For me a growth mindset is to firmly believe that abilities can grow with dedicated effort. To grow, one needs to put in the work and it requires passion and resilience.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Personal development. Through personal development, one can achieve and tackle anything.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

Using survey response data we managed to quickly personalize landing pages.

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11. Linda Le Phan

Describe yourself

I’m a former law school grad whos now 8+yrs into leading content, SEO, lead gen at B2B tech companies. I specialize in empathetic copy and content experience design; publishing my first book Fall ’21.

In just one sentence, please tell us why you want to become a growth mentor?

I have a unique career journey (started as a law school grad) that has led me to a successful 8+yr career in marketing at startups where I’ve also hired many people – I’d love to share what I’ve learned to help guide new marketers and people wanting to transition into marketing.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A growth mindset is one where there’s constant forward movement (whether good or bad) and always a new question to be answered. A growth mindset is one where there are always new possibilities to explore, even then if you think you’re already doing well or think you have found “the answer”. Growth mindset is the opposite of a fixed mindset, which is where you see things in absolutes: e.g. “SEO is dead”.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Empathetic and impactful writing. Why? Because everyone in their life at one point or another will need to write something in order to persuade another person to do something for their benefit, whether it is to buy a product, open an email, click a link, do a favor, etc. Writing with empathy is a key part of being successful at that.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

In one of my previous roles we wanted to own the topic of “employer branding”, but it’s a pretty popular topic in HR. Instead of trying to chase rankings for employer branding topics, I came up with a fun visual framework for the definition of employer branding called The Employer Branding Pineapple, literally a framework in a shape of a pineapple (see it written about here: https://www.nextwavehire.com/blog/employer-branding-pineapple). To this day I am proud of it – someone else wrote about it and got an award for it, which I’m not thrilled about – but c’est la vie.

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12. Marcus Burke

Describe yourself

Hi there, my name is Marcus. I’ve been working in Performance Marketing for mobile-first products in Gaming and Education for the last 9 years. I love a nerdy marketing discussion from Appstore Optimisation to App Retention Strategies. Looking forward to hear your challenges and exchange ideas!

In just one sentence, please tell us why you want to become a growth mentor?

I just love digging deep into marketing topics and am curious to see different business models, ideas and challenges that I can apply my knowledge and experiences to, to grow myself in a fun and creative way and hopefully enable others to do the same.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

To me a growth mindset means to always look over the edge of the plate, be curious and find inspiration in everyday life. Don’t settle with the status-quo if you have that itch to see how things could work differently.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

App User Acquisition which I’ve been working on throughout my career and still love to do hands-on.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

Built a partnership program with Micro-Creators on TikTok to generate affordable authentic video content for a company who didn’t have the budget / internal resources for video production. Recuts and compilations of that content formed our creative strategy across Google, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok and allowed us to 10x user growth at up to 30% lower CAC.

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13. Melissa Carmichael

Describe yourself

Hi I’m Melissa. I have over 20 years of experience as a Product Designer and recently spent 5.5 years Leading designers on Growth & Monetization teams at a well-known freemium SaaS survey product. I covered all parts of the funnel: acquisition, conversion, engagement, and retention. I focus on blending qualitative studies with the quantitative A/B tests, as I think there is a place for both. I have an interest in behavior economics and will fiercely call out any dark patterns or deceptive user experiences.

In just one sentence, please tell us why you want to become a growth mentor?

I love mentoring and education as a part of leveling up my own team and paying it forward with others.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Being open, flexible, willing to learn, and accept mistakes as a learning opportunity and a gift.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Crafting a good “How Might We?” statement, to make sure you’re solving for the right problem and focused on the right users and/or potential customers.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

“Sometimes it’s not what to do – it’s what not to do. On a project where we were spinning up a new survey respondent panel and were targeting a younger demographic, the idea was proposed to step into gamification as a means to make it “”sticky””. I successfully convinced the team that gamification is not a tactic, it’s a strategy, and would require a large amount of ongoing investment to track, plan, and manage to have continually evolving and layers of levels, rewards, etc. Instead, we implemented a dual incentive model – with the new option being cash payouts in the form of Amazon gift cards. The new model was so popular that the panelists consumed & completed surveys at 3x the rate as previous panels. We quickly had to shift our strategy from acquisition (demand) to engagement & retention (supply = surveys to take).”

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14. Narayanamurthy Raghupathy

Describe yourself

I have over 40 years of experience in the IT arena. I co-founded a software company, Reflexis Systems Inc., which became the leader in providing products and solutions to the Retail industry in Store Execution and Workforce Management. I wore several hats, many of them in Customer Success Management. My long entrepreneurial journey culminated in the acquisition of the company by Zebra Technologies for $ 575 MM in 2020. I am now looking to help, with my rich experience and expertise, young entrepreneurs and startup’s to grow and succeed.

In just one sentence, please tell us why you want to become a growth mentor?

Would like to give back to society and help young entrepreneurs succeed.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

At the heart of growth is the do-what-it-takes attitude. When you begin something, be it a college education, a startup or a new phase in your personal life, you need to be aware and willing to do anything and everything that is needed to succeed. No task is too small or below your (or your colleagues’) dignity. The other important area of focus is to identify and nurture what your customer needs and wants. No business can succeed if you are not fulfilling a need or solving a problem for your customer. There are obviously several other factors that are required for growth and success but all of them will fall into place if you take care of the first two.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Customer Success Management. This term encompasses the whole gamut of acquiring the customer, identifying their needs, fulfilling those needs, supporting, following up and ensuring that the customer gets the return on investment for which the customer came to you in the first place.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

We were once facing a tricky situation with a difficult customer. Their Project Manager was vehemently refusing to complete acceptance testing of our software application, always managing to find one little problem in each round of testing. After struggling with the situation for weeks, our engineering team was at its wits end. I then hit upon this idea of flying the customer Project Manager to our offshore facilities and have him spend some time with the team. Of course, the unsaid motive was to give him a mini vacation in a far away land. Things started working like a dream. The PM not only became super cooperative but actually started writing the test scripts himself. I was able to pat my own back satisfactorily!

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15. Nicholas Scalice

Describe yourself

“With over 11 years of digital marketing experience, I run a conversion-focused growth marketing agency specializing in landing pages, chatbots, automations, and audits. I also host a top-rated growth marketing podcast called Growth Marketing Toolbox, which has featured world-class marketers such as Seth Godin and attracts over 10,000 downloads per month, and I manage a newsletter called GrowthMarketer Weekly which has over 3,200 subscribers.”

In just one sentence, please tell us why you want to become a growth mentor?

I’ve been a fan of the platform for years, had Foti on my podcast, and have lots of advice to share with folks based on my 11+ years of marketing experience.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Having a growth mindset means leveraging data to find what works and then effectively scaling it to hit the business objectives.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

How to turn your website or landing page into a lead generation and sales machine using conversion optimization.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

One of my clients—a law firm—wasn’t seeing success with their landing page conversions. I ran a series of tests and found that while the copy on the page was great, the functionality of the page—specifically the form—was causing usability issues. I switched it out with a no-code conversational chatbot built using Landbot and conversions increased by over 122% without making any other changes at all.

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16. Paddy O’neill

Describe yourself

“I’m Paddy, Co-founder of Makk Consulting. I have over a decade of marketing agency and consulting experience, specialising in brand development, digital acquisition and customer retention. I like to think of myself as a marketing all-rounder, with a particular passion for startup growth marketing. I like dog walks, cold beers and wide landscapes. Sometimes all at the same time.”

In just one sentence, please tell us why you want to become a growth mentor?

Because I enjoy it, and mentoring is a welcome variation from retained clients. It also helps to keep my own skills sharp.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

A growth mindset means finding the opportunities for growth in everything you do. As a team, as a product, as a brand; where is the hidden value that sets you apart? Exploit it.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Organic growth.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

Built and deployed an email automation sequence to iteratively segment customers within an extremely complex B2B ecosystem.

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17. Pierpaolo Maniglio

Describe yourself

I am an energetic, enthusiastic and innovative digital leader passionate about all things social and marketing. I have 10+ years of extensive experience leading media, publishing and consumer companies such as Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s among others. I’ve also mentored several startups, business professionals and students at H-Farm master. I personally enjoy public speaking engagements and meeting like-minded inspired people. In the past, you could’ve met me on stage at Social Media Week, Digital Marketing World Forum, NATO Experts Forum, Engage Prague and many other world known conferences. I had the honor of being named among NEXT50 by ANA/The Internationalist, “20 Rising Stars” by The Gramercy Institute and recently awarded Business Transformation Leader of the year 2020 at Reuters News in NYC.

In just one sentence, please tell us why you want to become a growth mentor?

Inspire and get inspired, network, help startup community and marketers thrive.. all while meeting interesting people, during this new normal remote life.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

Growth is not a department, it’s an attitude. Growth mentality is the driver to explore, try, test, adjust and reiterate this never ending data-driven, organized, structured and methodical A/B testing process to constantly beat your benchmark. This applies to your daily job, but it translates to your life, your relationships, yourself.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Marketing & Social Media Strategy across the board. From content creation, to distribution, to business development, to broader strategy and revenue models.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

Among several innovation projects, I fully conceived and executed an AI driven smart publishing automation solution which drove operational efficiency and created a multi millionaire incremental revenue stream for the biggest News organization in the world. You can read or watch more about this content factory strategy on SMW AdWeek here: https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2017/03/social-content-talent-technology/

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18. Robert Anders

Describe yourself

I am an experienced B2B Sales Leader from Germany, focused on SaaS & Sustainability Startups. Love to support on GTM-Strategy and everything Sales related!

In just one sentence, please tell us why you want to become a growth mentor?

I am a Business Angel and StartUp Advisor already. It is my absolute passion to support the founders on their journey to fulfill their dreams and innovative business ideas.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

People with a growth mindset have strong routines that secure their personal development. If you want your company to grow start with yourself.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Sales.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

v.

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19. Sarah L. Parker

Describe yourself

I am an experienced B2B Sales Leader from Germany, focused on SaaS & Sustainability Startups. Love to support on GTM-Strategy and everything Sales related!

In just one sentence, please tell us why you want to become a growth mentor?

I am a Business Angel and StartUp Advisor already. It is my absolute passion to support the founders on their journey to fulfill their dreams and innovative business ideas.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

People with a growth mindset have strong routines that secure their personal development. If you want your company to grow start with yourself.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Sales.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

v.

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20. Yenson She

Describe yourself

Hi, I’m Yenson – the Head of Business Development at Syfe for the Hong Kong market, also leading the growth marketing team here. I got a mixed background of corporates and startups (former: regional ops at Uber Eats; business innovation at a traditional conglomerate; UXUI consultant). Would love to share my experience on change management, identifying product market fit, and funnel optimisation.

In just one sentence, please tell us why you want to become a growth mentor?

I want to contribute to a community that nurture knowledge exchange and make 1 + 1 = 4.

In your words, what does a growth mindset mean to you?

It’s a on going process of keep innovating and optimising.

If you could mentor a startup on one topic, what would it be?

Identifying product-market fit and formulating go-to-market strategy. Finding the right positioning and target segment are the core of any successful growth campaign.

Describe an out of the box solution to a complex problem that made you proud of yourself?

Back in Uber Eats HK, I reviewed the overall UX journey across three verticals (restaurant, delivery partner, eater) in order to improve the eater conversation funnel by over 20% with a 10% cost optimisation without any product change.

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Interested in becoming a growth mentor?

What we’re looking for:

• Growth marketers, product managers, and designers, with extraordinary track-records of success
• Inspirational founders that have “been there and done that.”
• Friendly people that take joy in helping other people.
• At least 5 years of demonstrable experience working in growth.
• GrowthMentor is a #givefirst platform. You should be cool with mentoring for free until you have three reviews.