How to grow a growth education business - with Brian Balfour(CEO at Reforge) - a podcast by Shamanth Rao

My guest today is Brian Balfour - and there could be no one better than Brian to kick off the third season of How Things Grow. 

Brian is seen as one of the most influential people in growth today - he has to his credit some truly astounding accomplishments in growth. He started his career building a social networking site for college students. He then founded a digital goods company & subsequently an ed-tech company. After this, he became the VP of Growth at Hubspot, overseeing & systematizing some tremendous growth that had been driven, astonishingly, by content. It was during this phase that he started writing his very popular blog. He started what was then a side project called ‘Silicon Valley Business Review’ with Andrew Chen. The Silicon Valley Business Review has since grown into Reforge, which is now a definitive source of education around growth for experienced professionals. In this fascinating conversation, Brian not only talks about his own experiences but also dives into how Reforge is changing how education around growth is imparted today, and is redefining many traditional paradigms of executive education. What I find truly astounding is how Brian applies growth frameworks and loops to Reforge’s business. He breaks down how these growth loops are applicable to Reforge - in a section that I find very very instructive. 

This is very much a masterclass on growth - one taught by the very best in the business.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• Why getting an external unbiased coach was the most important thing that Brian did in his career.
• What Brian’s experience was as a founder of an early social network – and subsequently as a founder of a digital goods company & then of an ed-tech company.
• Why Brian began to write – and the benefits he got from his own writing
• How Hubspot’s content strategy was one of the key drivers behind their IPO
• The gap that Brian noticed when doing 1:1s for his team and having to look up recommendations for professional development – and the side project it inspired – the ’Silicon Valley Business Review’.
• Is Reforge a ’service’ company or a ‘product’ company? Are its live experiences antithetical to scale?
• How Reforge selects people for ‘fit’, even if it means saying no to short term revenue.
• How growth loops apply to Reforge’s business. 

Check out the full transcript and show notes here:
https://howthingsgrow.co/how-to-grow-a-growth-education-business-with-brian-balfour/

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Further episodes of The How Things Grow Podcast

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