The other day I met someone at an accelerator event who described a nightlife app he is about to launch.

Since I’m a growth / content guy, he asked if I had any recommendations and mentioned he already has quite a bit of capital behind it. One of his ideas was to “get a bunch of hot girls to try the app and tell their friends on Facebook.”

I have to admit, I gave him a blank stare for a good 10 seconds.

I’ve had more than a few conversations like this (yes, they are often with the geeky programmer/coder who is a little short on social skills), and while I’ve figured out some standard ways of responding it still catches me off guard. I won’t get into a protracted discussion here, but anyone who’s familiar with the semi-regular Titstare style flare up in Silicon Valley will recognize the inherent flaw, and misogyny, in the idea.

This time I tried a different tack. I explained the loop between early growth/marketing and product development, using the standard Dropbox example of trading referrals of your friends for more storage, and asked him how he was testing the app and looping the problems solved / successes into the launch.

It was his turn to give me a blank look. He literally hadn’t considered that question.

Now, I don’t know him and I don’t really know much about his app other than the basics. Is it a good idea? Will it work? Based on the conversation I’m skeptical about the execution, but I can’t say for sure.

What I can say with certainty is that until he tests/validates and then uses the answers to fuel growth, it doesn’t matter what I think, or what he / his co-founder, or investors think might happen.

The two questions you need to ask to fuel growth in your startup

Y Combinator founder Paul Graham defined the primary goal of startups as growth.

If you’re building a high growth startup (very different from just starting your own business) there are two questions you absolutely have to get used to asking on a regular basis:

“Does it solve an actual, relevant problem for users, and will they pay for it?”

Credit: www.tecnologiapyme.com

It is possible to get by on one or the other, but for fast and sustainable growth you need both.

In fact, the most successful high growth ventures in the last 5 years (think Air BnB, Dropbox, Box, Lending Club, Splunk, etc…) have all built empires based on answers to those two questions.

Those answers are what make up your internal data ecosystem — very different from the competitive landscape that your company lives within — and with the right prioritization and focus will allow you to scale over time.

The rest is just noise.