At OkHi, we are running a 3-month growth experiment modelled on the Y Combinator (YC) growth philosophy which we are calling OKombinator.
Y Combinator now has near universal acceptance as the best accelerator for tech startups with impressive alumni such as Dropbox, Airbnb and Stripe. I believe that the single reason Y Combinator has been so successful is their intense focus on growth. According to Paul Graham:
growth drives everything and Y Combinator startups are expected to grow by at least 7% each week.
As a startup based in Nairobi we are not in a position to spend 3-months at YC but we have decided to pick out the best bits and apply those principles to find growth. OKombinator is based on three core things:
- aligning on the right growth metric (the what)
- processes that helps us to learn more quickly (the how)
- and building the right team (the who)
The What: One Metric That Matters or OMTM
For the next 3-months, the whole team at OkHi are aligned around a single focus: traction! With our business model (more on this later) our main value proposition is to help businesses deliver to their customers faster. At our current growth stage, traction means increasing the number of deliveries being made using OkHi and our OMTM is therefore the number of deliveries using an OkHi address per week.
One of the hardest things in a startup and many other businesses is focussing on one thing. The most successful teams are super-focussed and that’s what the OMTM helps achieve. Over the next 3-months everything we do must be an affirmative of the question,
does this help to grow the number of weekly OkHi journeys by <7%?
Having the OMTM is also a great lens for thinking through strategic questions such as “what business verticals should we be looking?” and “How are we prioritising partner integration?”
The How: Running lean
As a startup, we run on the lean model conducting product processes in hypothesis sprints measuring, learning and improving all the time.
We apply the lean principles to everything we do from the hypothesis process, our development cycle and even our meeting cycle. We are applying the same principles to OKombinator with a weekly check-in to measure progress and to identify how we can iterate on processes to be more effective.
The Who: Building the team
At the end of the day, the team will be key to the success of a startup so we know it’s important to work just as hard on the people as on the product and processes. For OKombinator we want to start by working on the people we already have at OkHi. Focusing on enabling the team to focus on achieving the metric.
One of our key constraints is engineering resources. We are keen to hire more engineers to enable us to build faster so if you are a world class full-stack developer who is keen to join a fast growing startup and make a dent in the universe, point them to our hiring page.
See the results…
We'll be writing more blog posts sharing our progress, going in-depth and tactical about some pieces of OKombinator such as how we've identified our OMTM, our hypothesis and product process and our plan to add top-notch talent to the team. Stay updated by subscribing to this Medium channel or by following our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram channels. We'll also be sharing a progress traction report and the key learning and challenges that emerge from this grand experiment.
Let’s OKombinate!
By: Wes Chege
OkHi Growth Hacker
