The Science of Growth

How Facebook Beat Friendster - and How Nine Other Startups Left the Rest in the Dust

By: Sean Ammirati, Richard Florida - foreword

Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi

Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

The lean entrepreneurship movement has captivated Silicon Valley and entrepreneurs across the country. It provided an agile framework to develop the right product solution for a given target market and is now used by almost every fledgling company to do just that.

The next challenge is growth - to achieve the financial returns and, more importantly, the impact they dreamed of when starting off on their adventure.

Why do some companies realize the VC's goal of a 10x return on investment while others flounder? What differentiates the companies that become part of the fabric of our lives and remain responsive no matter how big they get from those that quickly fade? To find out, Ammirati looks at 20 different companies in pairs who have achieved product-market fit at about the same point in history, with the same general target customer - one of which has gone on to achieve real scale while the other languished. As his research reveals, just a handful of choices - among them, who to partner with, how to finance growth, and how to use data - make all the difference in the world.

With such intriguing examples as LinkedIn vs. Spoke, Facebook vs. Friendster, and McDonald's vs. White Castle, Ammirati shows the secret of "the science of growth" and how to cultivate it in any organization.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2016 Sean Ammirati (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Interesting "Built to Last" clone for startups

I read "Built to Last" (which this book refers to) many years ago, and the similarity in depth and insight is minimal.
However, many interesting stories in this book makes it valuable for entrepreneurs in the software arena, and in software-related arenas. It is less useful for other arenas.
There is an appendix at the end (the last chapter). I believe it should be listened to right after the intro, as it gives a summary of information about the different companies, which you sometimes miss thru the book.

Thank you for the summary

This is good information to have distilled and read to if you are building a new tech company.

Pretty fun

It's pretty good. It's not one of those big words, long phrases but nothing useful kind of book. Some of the lessons is little hard to apply for little startup but generally Lots useful stuff. Organized, back by some decent reasons and studies.

Expected more from this boom

Not too much info and details on how companies succeed while others fail. Im disappointed because I will have to do some research. But overall, not bad.

Good book... you can find everywhere online

The stories are interesting, but can be found everywhere online. Hardly any fact mentioned was original, and the "science" is basically what Eric Ries (Lean Startup) and Sean Ellis (GrowthHacker) say on their complementing theories, with the authors' own words. Not much of an original content, but a light and entertaining book nonetheless. Recommended if you've never heard of the case studies and / or Lean Startup methodology.

A great introduction to growth alignment

Good introductory text, with clear examples. Would have benefited from a deeper cohort analysis, and explanation of how the management team answered each of the key questions.

interesting book

If yo want to grow your business, have a look at this book. It helps.

Awesome book

Great book that contrasts some great companies and how they outgrew the competition and the major factors that played a role in their successes.

Very interesting. Great book!

It's very interesting to hear the stories behind how companies that are household names became successful compared to others that were not. As a business owner I found this book very informative and helpful.

Good, easy read. Interesting high level thoughts

Listened to it. Reading it would have been better given the material but overall a well written and well thought out book. In the vein of good to great.