Elena Verna’s Post

The answer is almost always - 'no' 🤣 #marketing #product

The power of marketing is perfectly illustrated in Celsius's growth story: from a $10M valuation in 2009, near bankruptcy, to $22B in 2024—hitting hypergrowth in 2020. Yet the product (ingredients) stayed the same 😮. So what has changed? Positioning & Brand... Going from weight loss focus, set out to fight obesity epidemic: -> Burn calories -> Reduce body fat -> Build lean muscle -> Lasting energy -> Clinically validated To leading with the energy benefits, healthy feeling, and appealing to a fitness crowd: -> Essential energy -> Accelerates metabolism -> Burns body fat + revamped brand look & channel strategy... and voila! They are now the fastest growing brand in the energy drink category. Positioning can make or break the company... Marketing - we need you. #marketing

It is *never* OK. #productmanagement

Observed: Zoom's unspoken, but strictly enforced tardiness rules: 1 minute late - Introverts joining late to avoid small talk. 2 minutes late - No problem. 3 minutes late - Your intentions are questioned. 4 minutes late - You're flirting with disrespect, apology is expected. 5+ minutes late - Rage. No show - Appreciating the unexpected gift of time. #remotework

Don't they own a search engine, or something? 😭

Last week, I took on a full-time role at Dropbox, which seemed like a major plot twist for many. I've been preaching solopreneurship for the past five years, so why go back to full-time? Is solopreneurship dead? It's not that simple. My initial engagement at Dropbox was on an interim basis (just like Miro, Netlify, Amplitude), but I found myself in an amazing team (it’s always about the people in the end, isn’t it?) and solving a problem that was squarely within my superpower zone which I wanted to see all the way through. Dropbox was also willing to make it worth my while financially and respected my personal boundaries (no work after 6pm, non-negotiable 1 hour at the gym, and lowered travel requirements). So, after 8 months as an Interim, I converted to a full-time role. This approach allowed me to completely de-risk this choice, and I could not be more confident in this decision. Having the option to choose between continuing as a solopreneur or taking a full-time position is a privilege I don’t take lightly. I worked really hard to not *need* a full-time job, but choosing to accept one that was right for me. And after this role runs its course, I will return to solopreneurship. Because once a solopreneur, always a solopreneur :) The most valuable career advice I can offer is this: don’t fixate on becoming an executive, or a founder, or a solopreneur, or [insert your dream role here]. These shouldn’t be seen as ultimate goals but rather as *options* you should work to have available to you. Read all the details about my FT<->Solopreneur journey on my blog: https://lnkd.in/eGKGDYqN And a huge thank you to this week's sponsor: Sidebar. #career

T-24 hours till 🖤BTB Conference🖤 and my keynote in SF! Topic: the meme below. Or rather... how to NOT end up in the meme below. -> Grab your seat before it's too late: https://lnkd.in/e5yqqRcs I'm especially excited to meet my role models: Carilu Dietrich, Emily Kramer, Camille Ricketts, and Elain Szu 🖤 P.S. I have a few free tickets if you'd like to come and chat IRL! Drop a comment 👇 if you'd like one. #growth

What does a Growth Team at Dropbox look like now? ➡ Growth model: Dropbox grows through PLG, where the majority of the revenue is self-serve. As such, the Growth team acts like a 'sales' team for the core product, comprising a sizable, cross-functional team of a few hundred people. ➡ Structure: As the Head of Growth, I oversee the Growth Product and Data teams. The Growth Product is divided into: - Driver Metrics pods: acquisition, activation, monetization - Sharing Growth Loop pod - Growth Infrastructure pod - Mobile Growth pod Each pod is led by a Growth Product Manager, supported by dedicated resources from Design, Engineering, Marketing, and Data. ➡ Metrics: As the Head of Growth, I hold revenue accountability. However, my team is responsible for revenue KPIs across driver metrics such as sign-ups, team invites, free-to-paid conversions, etc. ➡ Cultural values: Be data-driven. Be agile. Have high agency. Exhibit craft. Have a growth mindset. Maintaining a growth mindset is most challenging because it involves embracing failures, which is inherently difficult since organizations typically try to avoid them. However, failure is how we learn. We have a Slack channel called # oh-sh1t where we post our failures, viewing them as opportunities to discover what works. ➡ ➡ More details on my blog-> https://lnkd.in/gfbng486 #growth

I interrupt your regularly scheduled LinkedIn doom scrolling to share that I've taken on a full-time role with Dropbox! And I couldn't be more thrilled—I absolutely love the team & find the business problem fascinating. And I want to be part of the dream team to solve it. Does this mean I'm done with solopreneurship? Ha, it's not quite that black and white. I've been a happy solopreneur for 5 amazing years. It's been incredibly refreshing and liberating—I wouldn't have had it any other way. But I've come across something I want to sink my teeth into, so I've committed. And once an solopreneur, always an solopreneur - so the future may (and will) hold more of this. But I'm proud to be flexible with my career and continue building a non-linear path. In the meantime, I'll still be advising on the side while keeping my newsletter and Reforge courses running. Those are now part of my baseline that I'll never let go of. And why Dropbox? 💙 🖤 1. I love Drew's vision & mission for the product and I want to help the company get there [hint: we’re *Dash*-ing towards new products]. 2. The scale of Dropbox is jaw-dropping (millions of paid subscribers and still signing up over a million new users a week!), and yes, the business has its challenges... but what business doesn’t? Honestly, as a growth professional, I prefer to tackle the tougher growth challenges—that's where the real learning happens. Hyper-growth unicorns are awesome, but you can do no wrong there (for the most part :)) - in the end you learn very little. 3. I've had massive 'Reverse trial' with Dropbox over the last 9 months (hello my interim engagement), so this decision is completely de-risked and I know exactly what I'm getting myself into. My north star metric has always been new data points I can learn from, and this opportunity checks all the boxes. I'll spill more beans about my choice on my blog next week! #career #newjob

I had to... #plg