20Growth: Three Growth Lessons Scaling Whatsapp from 0-100M, Why You Should Hire a Head of Growth Sooner Than You Think, The Biggest Mistakes Founders Make When Hiring for Growth & Why Growth Post-Mortems Are Overrated with Ryan Wiggins, Head of Growth @ Mercury

Ryan Wiggins is the VP of Growth and Analytics at Mercury where he oversees a Growth team and founded the Analytics function. Prior to this, Ryan built Growth teams at WhatsApp, where he helped grow WhatsApp Business from 0->100M users, Workplace, and Facebook Ads. If that was not enough, Ryan is also an active angel investor.

In Today’s Episode with Ryan Wiggins We Discuss:

1.) From US Department of Commerce to Leading Growth Teams:

• How Ryan made his initial foray into the world of growth with Facebook and Whatsapp?

• What does Ryan know now that he wishes he had known when he made the entry into growth?

• What advice does Ryan have for people who want to change their career but are not sure what they want to do?

2. ) Who and When: Building the Team:

• Should we hire a Head of Growth or a more junior growth hire first?

• What are the different profiles of growth hires? How do they change with business model?

• When is the right time to hire your first growth hire?

• What are the single biggest mistakes founders make on the timing of growth hires?

3.) How to Hire: The Process:

• Structurally, what is the right way to hire for a growth team? What does the interview process look like? What do you want to get out of each meeting?

• Should case studies be used, if so, should they be used for the company hiring or of the company where the candidate is from?

• What does the comp package look like for different growth hires?

• Who should be brought into the growth hiring process? What stage should they be involved?

4.) Onboarding: Setting Growth Up for Success:

• What is the ideal first 30,60 and 90 days for new growth hires?

• What can leaders do to ensure they are set up for the maximum chance of success?

• What are three of the biggest red flags bad growth hires show in the first 30 days?

• What are the biggest mistakes founders make in the onboarding process of growth hires?