Growth Units

Book excerpt: How do businesses sustainably grow? Whether you're a startup founder trying to improve your odds of success, or a Fortune 100 businessperson looking for ways to optimize an already sustainable business, you will benefit from understanding the ways you acquire customers and generate revenue from them. This book can help. We demonstrate methods to assess and calculate Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC), Lifetime Value (LTV), and more. Looking at 15 case studies from a wide range of business types, we also show how metrics can vary depending on situation and goals. You will learn: - Ways to calculate Customer Acquisition Cost and Lifetime Value with additions like customer segments, cohorts, retention, and more (and why they can be imperfect methods). - How to manage the cost of growth along with potential value generated. - The difference between growing and scaling a business. - Why food delivery businesses with good unit economics shut down. - The difference between taxi and rideshare business models. - Why it made sense for data storage companies to launch too soon. - How varied business types, including mobility, consumer packaged goods, organized crime, art, subscriptions, mattress stores, food delivery, and more thrive or struggle because of these metrics. Written by Paul Orlando, who built and operated startup accelerators in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Rome, and who teaches at the University of Southern California, the book explains various approaches you can use in your own company as well as when you evaluate other businesses. The book is a direct, practical guide for startup founders, operators, and students of business.