Growth Tribe and the end of an era. What's next? (+special sneak-peek)
What does the end of Growth Tribe as we know it mean for the growth community?
On Saturday 11th of January, many were shocked and confused after receiving an email stating that Growth Tribe was sunsetting and its assets taken over by another company.
The news was so surprising that many thought it was a joke or some form of spam. Unfortunately, it was neither.
Needless to say, this marks the end of an era for many who took one of Growth Tribe’s courses and were part of the community.
As one of the earliest employees and now a founder in the same space, this development has left me with a weird mixture of emotions.
There’s nostalgia when I think back to my amazing time there.
There’s pride, in what the company managed to build.
There’s sadness in that it has so abruptly come to an end.
There’s apprehension as a founder who wants to avoid a similar fate.
And honestly, there’s also some excitement. Because when something so big happens in a market, it can have a major ripple effect for everyone in it.
I want to share some musings around these events as well as a sneak-peek into something exciting (and relevant) we’re working on.
The power of momentum
I owe my entire career to the fact that I joined Growth Tribe in 2016.
I had moved to Amsterdam with very little idea on what I wanted to do. All I knew was that I wanted to experience startup life. The hustle. The hype. The camaraderie.
Growth Tribe would offer all that, and more.
I joined Growth Tribe right before the “growth hacking” hype swept across Europe. That’s no coincidence, because David and Peter were the architects of that hype.
When I joined, I knew nothing about startups. All I had was some local marketing agency experience. But my first 6 months would serve as an MBA on “startup growth”.
I got to shadow David and learn from him directly. I got to lead the 2 Day and the 6 Week growth courses. I got to help develop new course materials and travel around Europe to train companies and speak at all sorts of conferences and events.
Every startup founder and marketing executive in Amsterdam was attending our courses. Everyone was jumping on the hype train. Uber, Booking, Google, WeTransfer, Mollie, Recruitee, Messagebird, ING, KLM, Transavia, Heineken, Philips, RTL, Pipedrive…you name the company; we trained them.
At the time, it was the dream job.
Growth Tribe’s early days showed me the true power of momentum. Companies need momentum and bursts of energy to break into new stages of growth.
And if you play your cards right, you can ride that wave. I know I did!
A gap in the market
A lot of people have asked me the last days what happened.
The truth is, I don’t know and it would be arrogant to sit here with the benefit of hindsight and pass judgement.
All I know (from experience) is that in the world of funded startups, things can change drastically from one day to the next and an an abrupt end does not always reflect the value that was created.
I left Growth Tribe when the company stood at a cross-roads: go deeper down the “marketing & growth skills” path, or tackle a broader set of “digital skills”.
Growth Tribe opted for the latter. And they did so very successfully. They made digital skills available and accessible to tens of thousands of professionals.
Personally, as the “B2B marketing guy” on the team, I always wondered what would have happened if they had opted for the former.
Instead of hiring trainers to create and deliver a range of courses in-house, they might have hired active growth leaders (freelance / part-time) to deliver highly practical and advanced courses focused purely on (B2B) marketing & growth.
Would this have been as successful? Who knows. All I know is that these are the sort of courses I would have wanted a few years back.
As an experienced B2B marketer, your options for learning are often limited to:
Free online content that you need to interpret and apply yourself.
Mentors — if you’re lucky to find one.
Communities and events that are often quite superficial and salesy.
Basic Udemy / Hubspot / Google certifications that aren’t very strategic.
Super academic MBA-style courses.
There’s tons of untapped potential for teaching strategic and tactical marketing & growth skills. Reforge and CXL do this quite well, but they never built the kind of community Growth Tribe did and are often less accessible.
In that sense, Growth Tribe was really unique in how many people they managed to reach and teach over the years.
So what’s next?
This truly is the end of an era. Growth Tribe built one of the most memorable brands in the space and leave behind a monumental legacy. The whole team should be immensely proud of everything they’ve achieved.
But you know what they say. When one door closes, another opens…
Over the past month, we’ve actually been working on some really exciting stuff with The Growth Syndicate and this news makes it even more relevant and current.
First off, we recently added expert-led strategy workshops and monthly growth lead coaching / sparring to our service-offering.
But there’s something else. Something bigger.
The official announcement is planned for a few weeks from now, but given the circumstances, it feels like a good time to share what we’re working on with a select few people.
We’re going to be launching the go-to community for B2B growth. A place where experienced, hands-on practitioners can learn from and inspire each other.
What will it include? To name a few things:
Expert-led courses on in-depth marketing, growth and GTM topics, from ICP & Positioning, to Demand Generation, to Revenue-Driven Experimentation. New courses by proven professionals will be released every quarter.
A “cheat-code” marketplace where you can access a vetted resource of real playbooks, tools and templates used by actual marketing and growth professionals at top growing companies.
An online community environment that oozes value. No sales pitches. No dead channels. Active engagement, network matching and regular live streams & AMAs with some of the most exciting people in the business.
A “premium” tier with VIP access to our upcoming conference (TBA), quarterly in-person workshops led by some of the worlds best experts, peer-led strategy dinners and other community events.
No fluff. No bullshit. No sales pitches. No fake-exclusivity. No juniors (sorry!). Only experienced professionals who are actually doing the work.
If you’re interested, you can learn more and sign up for the waiting list here.
Here’s to Growth Tribe and to playing a small part in continuing the community and legacy they created 🍻.
By Ferdinand Goetzen