AI First, Human Refinement Second

The AI-First Growth Playbook for Modern Companies

Elena Verna, Head of Growth at Lovable, shares how growth strategies have fundamentally changed in AI-driven companies. Traditional growth frameworks now apply to only 30-40% of what works, requiring a complete rethinking of how to drive sustainable growth.

The Shift from Optimization to Innovation

• Growth teams now spend 95% of their time innovating rather than optimizing existing funnels
• Traditional growth focused on incremental improvements to existing user journeys
  • "I usually spend maybe 5% innovating on growth in my previous roles. Right now I'm spending 95% innovating on growth and only 5% on optimization."
• In fast-moving AI markets, optimization yields diminishing returns compared to creating entirely new growth loops
• Growth teams now build core product features rather than just "smoothing the outer layers"
  • Example: Lovable's growth team built Shopify integration to enable e-commerce use cases
  • Example: Growth team implemented voice mode as a core product feature

Building in Public as a Growth Strategy

• Continuous shipping creates market noise and maintains momentum
  • Ship marketable features constantly (daily or weekly) rather than only big launches
  • Use social media to announce even small improvements
• Three key components:
  • Founder-led social sharing (primarily on X/Twitter and LinkedIn)
  • Employee social sharing across platforms
  • Customer word-of-mouth amplification
• Requires authentic, human communication rather than corporate messaging
  • "You cannot just have ChatGPT write your copy and post it. You need to show personality, there needs to be humanity."
• Creates powerful re-engagement loops as users check social media for product updates
  • "People are literally logging into their social to see 'what has Lovable shipped now?'"

The "Give It Away" Strategy for AI Products

• Counter-intuitively, giving away AI products (which have real costs per use) drives growth
  • "This is part of our growth secret sauce. You have to remove the barrier of entry."
• Treat free product usage as marketing cost rather than margin erosion
  • Track LLM costs on freemium and giveaways as marketing expenses
• Specific tactics:
  • Sponsor hackathons with free credits
  • Support user-initiated events with unlimited access
  • Empower evangelists with resources to demonstrate the product
• Creates powerful word-of-mouth when users experience the "wow" moment
  • "If somebody stands up and says, 'I'm going to have a hackathon at my work on Lovable,' why would we prevent a person who wants to do all of the marketing and activating for us from using us?"

The Minimum Lovable Product Approach

• Replace "Minimum Viable Product" with "Minimum Lovable Product"
  • Focus on creating delight rather than just functionality
  • Prioritize emotional connection over utility
• Invest in design and brand experience from day one
  • "Our designer is constantly thinking about how can we add more love marks into the product"
• Create moments that make users feel empowered and want to share
  • "That feeling of 'oh my gosh I have superpowers now and I can't wait to tell others'"
• Use AI tools to rapidly prototype and test ideas before committing resources
  • Allows quick validation of concepts that sound good in theory

The Product Market Fit Treadmill

• Product market fit is no longer a one-time achievement but requires constant recapturing
  • "Every three months I feel like we have to recapture our product market fit"
• Two driving factors:
  1. Rapid evolution of underlying AI capabilities with each model release
  2. Rapidly changing consumer expectations about what AI should do
• Companies must simultaneously:
  • Build for capabilities that don't yet exist but will soon
  • Adapt to shifting user expectations before users churn
• Creates tension between scaling existing product market fit and innovating for the next wave
  • "We're $200M company and we're not solely focused on marketing and sales because we still have to recapture our product market fit"

The Changing Role of Marketing in AI Companies

• Organic strategy has shifted from SEO to social media
  • "If you asked me what's organic marketing strategy five years ago, I would have said SEO. If you ask me now, it's all about social."
• Influencer marketing outperforms traditional paid channels by 10x
  • Visual demonstration of capabilities drives trial more effectively than written value props
• Marketing responsibilities are distributed throughout the organization
  • Engineers announce their own features rather than funneling through marketing
  • Product teams take on more marketing functions due to rapid shipping cadence
• Brand is built through product interactions rather than traditional brand marketing
  • "We put all of the brand work actually into our product"