At the 6th Nordic Growth Hackers event, held at Founders House earlier this week, the nearly 100 participants was introduced to a great deal of growth hack tricks including ’the hire hack’.
The atmosphere was relaxed and cozy and the invited speakers alternately made the crowd laugh and listen intensely.
The first of the four speakers on stage was CMO at Airtame, Steffen Hedebrandt. He introduced ’the review economy’ where the users’ online reviews have a direct effect on sales. Steffen explained how Airtame use a mix of ”hyggemails” and automated e-mail in connection with follow-ups on customer experiences, and when the customers are endorsed to write reviews. Especially reviews on Amazon have a big impact on sales at Airtame.
Profit is king, execution is queen
Steffen was followed by Bo Møller from Easypractice and HTML24. Bo had a clear message – profit is king, execution is queen, and gave a number of examples on how this message is the philosophy behind the majority of Easypratice’s strategic decisions. As an example Easypractice uses Google Translate when a new market is tested. Several of Bo’s examples was delivered with a lot of humor and self-irony – the crowded room repaid with sincere and loud laughter.
The panel discussions had been hacked
The participants were encouraged to ask questions to the four speakers in connection with two panel discussions. Compared to previous Nordic Growth Hack events, the setup had been hacked, and the panels only consisted of two speakers at a time. A minor hack which apparently created more dynamic discussions. The participants were eager to ask questions, and several discussions was started, such as the connection between motivation and salary and the importance of get moving combined with waiting for the right time.
Trend is your friend
After the break, where a lot of networking was done, the experienced entrepreneur, writer and investor, Michael Moesgaard Andersen, took the stage. Besides praising Morten Elk for initiating Nordic Growth Hackers, Michael shared his experiences from CBB Mobil and Configit. The presentation’s most important takeaway was ’trend is your friend’, which revolves around detecting and following tendencies among the consumers and in the technological advances – a takeaway that Thor Angelo, the founder of OrderYOYO, agreed with.
Where there is a will, there’s a hack
Besides emphasizing the importance of timing, Thor shared three specific hacks from OrderYOYO – the hire hack, the startup hack and the growth hack. Especially the hire hack was questioned further in the following panel discussion.
According to Thor, the hire hack, like the one that utilizes an rpo process, emerged in connection with OrderYOYO’s increasing growth during the past 12 months, where the company has gone from two employees to 70. Thor experienced that the employees didn’t have enough time to execute on their tasks, and the challenge was immediate.
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Today OrderYOYO hires numerous of interns and the hiring process takes a minimum of efforts. Thor gave the following example:
An employee needs a set of extra hands right now. Thor creates a post about OrderYOYO needing interns and posts it on Facebook the same night. The interviews are held the following day – four interviews of 20 minutes. The interviews are booked by a first-served basis.
Out the four applicants there are usually one with potential, who gets employed and starts the following day. If the new intern does well, he gets promoted within weeks.
Discussion about the hire hack
A number of the participants were skeptical towards ’the hire hack’, because how can you be sure to hire the right person based on a 20 minutes interview? According to Thor, the most important thing at OrderYOYO is that the employees have the right drive, and up until now, ‘the hire hack’ hasn’t failed.
The evening ended with informal networking in the charming halls at Founders House, and plenty of pizzas and lots of cold beers and sodas.
Nordic Growth Hackers turns two years
The first Nordic Growth Hackers event was launched in 2014 and ever since the interest and support has increased. The initiator and founder is serial entrepreneur Morten Elk. Morten is founder and CEO at SimpleSite and has previously been involved in several startups.
The objective with Nordic Growth Hackers is to offer Founders, CEOs, CMOs and other fiery souls an opportunity to share experiences of different growth hacking techniques. The events are especially focused on online marketing and concepts such as customer acquisition cost (CAC) and customer lifetime value (LTV).
