#Pinterest earning series#

In this exclusive interview, Winters makes the case for driving growth through a content loop, comparing it with other models and walking through how he successfully applied this approach to scale GrubHub and Pinterest in their early days. He now draws on these experiences to serve as a scaling advisor for a laundry list of companies, from Eventbrite and Reddit to Thumbtack and Hipcamp. The content loop and scaled SEO strategy that Winters and his team introduced helped usher in a second wave of growth, leading to over 200 million users and and a $12 billion valuation. When Winters joined as a growth marketing manager, the company had 200 people and 40 million active users, but growth was tapering off. His track record at Pinterest is equally impressive. By the time he left, his strategy around content and SEO helped turn the online food ordering site into a $10 billion public company with three million users and 1,000 employees.

#Pinterest earning series#

When he joined Grubhub, it was a million-dollar Series A startup with 30,000 users and 15 employees in two markets. Winters’ experience leading growth marketing functions at Grubhub and Pinterest has shown that content loops pay dividends. Instead, Winters believes startups should explore a frequently overlooked approach: building a content loop.

And choosing the wrong path can lead to a very different outcome: one where user growth and engagement drop off and popularity takes a nosedive. Winters finds that investors and startups alike often fail to differentiate between the kinds of growth loops that propel products. And according to scaling and growth advisor Casey Winters, it’s not even the best one.

But the good news is that it’s not the only path. The most celebrated companies are lauded for swift, exponential user growth - a reality that most startups fail to replicate. Look beyond the jargon and find the stuff of founders’ dreams: the type of explosive growth startups covet.