Mostly Growth

Mostly Media

Mostly Growth is a podcast from Mostly Media where go-to-market strategist Kyle Poyar and CFO CJ Gustafson break down how modern companies make money. Each episode focuses on pricing, monetization, and benchmarks—translated into clear tactics and playbooks you can actually use. Built for finance, product, and sales operators who want to think like owners and be the CEO of their role.

  1. The Top Metrics for Vertical SaaS Companies

    FA 3 DIES

    The Top Metrics for Vertical SaaS Companies

    On this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, Kyle and CJ dive into vertical SaaS and the “riches in niches” playbook. From Skimmer to Rock Auto to Epicor, they unpack why obscure software companies win, the TAM trap, product attach rate, month-one churn, and gross profit per location. Plus: front vs back office, marketplaces, competitive moats, and whether vertical AI is the next wave. — SPONSORS: HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how. — LINKS:  Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/ Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/ Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/ Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/ https://www.rockauto.com/ https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/the-top-metrics-for-vertical-saas-76a https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/owning-the-control-point — RELATED EPISODES: The Layer-Cake Playbook for Vertical SaaS Growth | with Roland Ligtenberg https://youtu.be/yPxWvhPISKo Scaling to $1B+ Revenue: From ServiceNow to Samsara | Dominic Phillips https://youtu.be/vBY6WZBMljw Why AI Hasn’t Hit Main Street Yet, According to Mangomint’s CEO https://youtu.be/2D-eEPkDnPk — TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Vertical SaaS Riches in Niches 00:01:10 Skimmer & Hyper-Specific Operating Systems 00:02:27 The Layered Niche Opportunity 00:04:23 Intro 00:04:47 Defining Vertical vs. Horizontal Software 00:06:10 The TAM Trap & Multi-Product Strategy 00:07:45 Why Vertical Retention Is So High 00:08:33 Investing in Vertical SaaS Post–Product Market Fit 00:10:28 Word of Mouth, Low CAC & 95% Retention 00:10:27 Sponsors — HockeyStack | RightRev | Tropic 00:14:08 PartsTech: Zero Marketing Spend & Vertical Efficiency 00:15:02 Partnerships & Ecosystem-Driven Growth 00:16:12 Arbitrage Opportunities in Vertical SaaS 00:17:03 Vertical SaaS Business Models: Front, Back & Marketplace 00:17:47 Why System of Record Wins 00:19:27 Tech Refresh Cycles & Generational Shift 00:21:10 Building the Next Vertical SaaS: What Investors Want 00:22:03 Product Attach Rate vs. Monetizable SKU Expansion 00:23:00 Month-One Churn as the Retention North Star 00:25:32 Implementation During Trial to Lock in Adoption 00:26:14 Tracking “TAM Burn” and the Retention Waterfall 00:28:47 Gross Profit per Location as a True North Metric 00:30:02 Vertical SaaS Is Crowded—Vertical AI Is Next 00:31:30 Salesforce Army Deal Stock Drop 00:32:49 Anthropic’s Super Bowl Ad Strategy 00:35:33 Credits #MostlyGrowthPodcast #VerticalSaaS #SaaSMetrics #GoToMarket #VerticalAI

    36 min
  2. Tactical guide to start & grow a B2B newsletter

    FA 5 DIES

    Tactical guide to start & grow a B2B newsletter

    In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson break down how newsletters went from career risk to career leverage. Drawing on their own stories, they walk through a tactical, no-fluff guide to starting and growing a newsletter—from naming, domains, and branding to writing, consistency, and AI use. — SPONSORS: Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how. HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com — LINKS:  Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/ Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/ Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/ Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/ https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/how-to-grow-your-b2b-newsletter?draft=true https://open.spotify.com/episode/4fLZsXKtoTY05btVmh1jO3?si=a4db1f43cb0c495b https://growthinreverse.com/cj-gustafson/ https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/deep-research-for-gtm https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/rumors-of-my-death-have-been-greatly-exaggerated — RELATED EPISODES: Fantasy Startup Draft: The First 5 Hires We’d Make Today https://youtu.be/usxbRdABi0I — TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Newsletter Side Hustles and Getting Fired 00:02:41 When a Newsletter Becomes a Career Catalyst 00:04:05 Ownership, Control, and Leaving With the Audience 00:05:20 From Career Risk to Job Requirement 00:06:38 Show Intro 00:07:02 Why Newsletters Beat Social Media Algorithms 00:08:27 Built-In Growth and Forwardability of Email 00:09:13 Naming Your Newsletter and Finding Audience-Market Fit 00:10:34 Sponsors — Tropic | HockeyStack | RightRev 00:14:14 Domains as a Strategic Newsletter Asset 00:15:40 Why Owning Your Domain Future-Proofs Distribution 00:17:04 The Power of Direct Traffic and Memorability 00:17:51 Choosing the Right “From” Name and Sender Identity 00:19:16 Defining Your Newsletter Logline 00:20:36 Visual Identity and Brand Consistency00:10:29 Sponsors — Tropic | HockeyStack | RightRev 00:14:14 Domains, Naming, and Brand Personality 00:22:45 Finding Stories and Newsletter Writing Inspiration 00:24:39 Writing Titles That Drive Opens Without Clickbait 00:27:00 Consistency, Timing, and Building Inbox Habits 00:28:01 Using AI as a Research and Brainstorming Assistant 00:29:46 Welcome Emails and Early Engagement Growth Loops 00:30:21 Promoting Newsletters Beyond Twitter 00:30:39 Newsletter Swaps as the Best Distribution Channel 00:31:57 Using Onboarding Surveys to Understand and Grow Audience 00:32:57 SEO Basics for Newsletters on Your Own Domain 00:34:47 Separating Email Subject Lines from SEO Titles 00:35:09 Experimenting With Paid Growth and Subscriber LTV 00:36:46 The Simple Formula for Building a Durable Newsletter 00:37:16 Credits #MostlyGrowthPodcast #NewsletterGrowth #ContentMarketing #PersonalBrand #CreatorEconomy

    38 min
  3. Fantasy Startup Draft: The First 5 Hires We’d Make Today

    6 DE FEBR.

    Fantasy Startup Draft: The First 5 Hires We’d Make Today

    In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson run a fantasy startup draft—Super Bowl–style. If you were founding a company today, who would you hire first? Marketing generalist, founding BDR, product marketing, RevOps, customer success, or a first business hire? Kyle and CJ draft five non-technical roles each, debate tradeoffs, and explain how early hiring choices shape growth, efficiency, and execution. Then it’s on you to vote on the winning roster—with real (and painful) stakes for the loser. — SPONSORS: RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how. HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com — LINKS:  Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/ Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/ Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/ Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/ — RELATED EPISODES: When the marketing math doesn’t math | with Emily Kramer https://youtu.be/sSuoV_YSrlw The Psychology Behind Why Buyers Don’t Change | DemandJen https://youtu.be/h7ZgPkgZ5oE — TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Fantasy Punishments and Cold Open   00:02:35 Show Intro and Draft Stakes   00:03:37 Framing the Fantasy Startup Draft   00:05:41 Round One 00:10:13 Sponsors — RightRev | Tropic | HockeyStack   00:13:54 Round Two 00:18:00 Round Three 00:21:10 Round Four 00:24:12 Round Five 00:27:18 Why This Pick Didn’t Make the Draft   00:28:12 Pricing in the Real World: Super Bowl Ads   00:30:51 Bonuses in the Real World: NFL Playoff Incentives   00:32:59 Voting, Final Thoughts, and Wrap-Up #MostlyGrowthPodcast #StartupDraft #GoToMarket #EarlyStageStartups #RevenueOps

    34 min
  4. The Economics of Free: When Zero Breaks the Pricing Curve

    4 DE FEBR.

    The Economics of Free: When Zero Breaks the Pricing Curve

    In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar, CJ Gustafson, and Ben Hillman break down the economics and psychology of “free,” explaining why the jump from free to even $0.01 fundamentally changes behavior. They unpack freemium, free trials, reverse trials, ungated products, and credit-card trials, sharing real conversion benchmarks and CFO-level tradeoffs between acquisition and revenue. The takeaway: “free” isn’t one strategy—it’s a set of levers that must match what you’re optimizing for. — SPONSORS: HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how. — LINKS:  Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/ Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/ Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/ Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/ https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/mksc.1060.0254 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517722002059 https://x.com/samwhoo/status/2007590903448514921?s=20 https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/29/guys-i-dont-think-tim-cook-knows-how-to-monetize-ai/ — RELATED EPISODES: From Credit Karma to Notion: CFO Rama Katkar on Leading Finance Through Every Growth Stage https://youtu.be/NWgn9ryTP38 — TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Personal Stories About Free 00:02:38 Mostly Growth Introduction 00:03:01 Why “Free” Changes Consumer Behavior 00:04:30 The Psychology of Free Pricing and Promotions 00:06:10 Why “Free” Works Differently in B2B vs B2C 00:08:12 Free Trials vs Freemium: Key Monetization Differences 00:09:04 Credit Cards, Free Trials, and CFO Anxiety 00:09:21 Sponsors — HockeyStack | RightRev | Tropic 00:13:02 Reverse Trials and the Calendly Playbook 00:15:39 Ungated Free Products and Zero-Friction Adoption 00:18:17 The Math Behind Free Funnels and Conversion Leakage 00:20:31 Why Small Conversion Gains Matter in Freemium Models 00:21:25 Newsletter Paywalls, Email Gates, and Monetization Tradeoffs 00:23:50 How the Freemium Conversion Data Was Collected 00:24:49 Why Free Trials Are Still More Popular Than Freemium 00:27:36 When Freemium Works: Network Effects and Compounding Value 00:29:14 Choosing Trial Lengths and What to Gate in Freemium 00:31:11 Designing Freemium Around User Needs and Conversion Extremes 00:33:25 Credit Card Trials: Higher Conversion vs Lower Quality Users 00:35:08 Comparing Freemium, Free Trials, and CC-Gated Trials 00:36:22 Choosing the Right Free Motion for Your Company Stage 00:37:43 StackOverflow’s Decline in the Age of AI 00:38:35 Apple’s AI Monetization Problem and Industry Uncertainty 00:40:29 Credits #MostlyGrowthPodcast #PricingStrategy #Freemium #ProductLedGrowth #SaaSMonetization

    41 min
  5. Pricing Strategy Guide: 7 Pricing Models Every Operator Should Know

    30 DE GEN.

    Pricing Strategy Guide: 7 Pricing Models Every Operator Should Know

    In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson unpack the pricing models hiding in plain sight. They break down razor-and-blade economics, hardware plus software, waitlists, free samples, luxury and Veblen goods, decoy pricing, two-part tariffs, and price anchoring. Using examples from Costco to SaaS and AI, they show how pricing psychology drives acquisition, retention, and willingness to pay. — SPONSORS: Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how. HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com — LINKS:  Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/ Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/ Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/ Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/ https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/plg-vs-microsoft — RELATED EPISODES: Pricing in the Real World: Babies, Bots, and Billing https://youtu.be/T1cjFSZR0k0 The CFO Case for Probabilistic Forecasting With AI | Bruno Annicq https://youtu.be/dfjSjPAXEEk — TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Snowstorm banter 00:03:28 Setting up the episode: real-world pricing models 00:04:09 Razor–razor blade pricing explained 00:07:45 Applying razor–blade pricing to SaaS and hardware 00:08:59 Hardware + software razor–blade tradeoffs 00:09:51 Sponsors — Tropic | HockeyStack | RightRev 00:13:31 Waitlists as a growth and pricing lever 00:19:39 Free samples and freemium models 00:23:23 Luxury pricing, exclusivity, and Veblen goods 00:27:29 Luxury tiers in tech and professional services 00:29:52 Decoy pricing and the Economist example 00:32:54 Two-part tariffs and membership economics 00:37:05 Price anchoring and steering buyers to the middle 00:38:46 Event-driven price increases tied to new value 00:41:26 Outro #MostlyGrowthPodcast #PricingStrategy #PricingModels #SaaSPricing #Monetization

    42 min
  6. The Psychology Behind Why Buyers Don’t Change | DemandJen

    28 DE GEN.

    The Psychology Behind Why Buyers Don’t Change | DemandJen

    In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson sit down with Jen Allen-Knuth to break down why “status quo” is the most dangerous competitor in B2B sales. They unpack the psychology of change, why buyers care more about confidence than features, and how sales principles show up in leadership, forecasting, and finance. The conversation covers qualifying real pipeline, running better discovery, smarter outbound, and how execs—from CROs to CFOs—can sell change inside their own companies. — SPONSORS: RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how. HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com — LINKS:  DemandJen: https://demandjen.com/ Jen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/demandjen1/ Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/ Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/ Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/ Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9OCYOD-e9s — RELATED EPISODES: Can You Measure the ROI of a Super Bowl Ad? https://youtu.be/YgWm4HqDlbw — TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Meeting Jen Allen-Knuth 00:01:12 Walkup Music, Conferences, and Setting the Vibe 00:03:34 Mostly Growth Show Intro 00:03:57 Meta Sales Lessons 00:06:20 Why Every Executive Needs Sales Skills 00:08:35 Sales Psychology, Loss Aversion, and the Cost of Inaction 00:11:09 Sponsors — RightRev | Tropic | HockeyStack 00:14:50 Why Great Sales Reps Assume Deals Will Fail 00:16:58 The Art of the Anti-Sell 00:19:03 Giving Buyers an Explicit Out on Price 00:21:00 The Three Strongest Signals a Deal Will Close 00:23:10 Asking How Buyers Reached Their Conclusion 00:25:34 Status Quo as the Biggest Competitor 00:27:24 How Much Pipeline You Actually Need to Hit Target 00:28:30 Shifting to What Actually Works in Outbound Messaging 00:31:52 Leading with Insight Instead of Pitching the Product 00:32:42 Why Every AE Needs to Generate Their Own Outbound 00:33:22 Business Blunders and the Problem with Breakup Emails 00:35:07 The Providence Place Mall Squatter Blunder 00:35:42 Reacting to the Providence Mall Squatter Story 00:36:40 Outbound Messaging as a Business Blunder 00:38:05 Solopreneur S-Corp and Payroll Pain 00:40:13 Using ChatGPT for Admin and Operations 00:42:33 Credits #MostlyGrowthPodcast #B2BSales #OutboundSales #SalesPsychology #RevenueGrowth

    43 min
  7. Can You Measure the ROI of a Super Bowl Ad?

    23 DE GEN.

    Can You Measure the ROI of a Super Bowl Ad?

    In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson unpack the real economics of brand marketing—from Super Bowl ads and CPM math to attribution, incrementality, and PLG arbitrage. They debate when brand spend actually drives growth, why CFOs struggle to measure it, and how B2B companies justify big bets. The episode wraps with Pricing in the Real World, breaking down Rivian’s lower-priced R2 launch, EV subsidies, and pricing strategy under uncertainty. — SPONSORS: HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how. — LINKS:  Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/ Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/ Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/ Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/ https://skift.com/2019/01/31/what-is-expensify-thinking-with-its-pricey-super-bowl-ad/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1Tgsy7D0Jg https://adage.com/article/special-report-super-bowl/super-bowl-commercial-prices-hit-8-million-first-time/2600146/ https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/guide-to-marketing-attribution https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/brand-vs-growth https://www.themotherhood.com/super-bowl-advertising-guidelines/ https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/gw30je/til_that_the_nfl_sent_a_cease_and_desist_order_to/ https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/teslas-full-self-driving-is-switching-to-a-subscription-only-service-120053137.html https://www.caranddriver.com/rivian/r3 — RELATED EPISODES: Scaling to $1B+ Revenue: From ServiceNow to Samsara | Dominic Phillips https://youtu.be/vBY6WZBMljw The Layer-Cake Playbook for Vertical SaaS Growth | with Roland Ligtenberg https://youtu.be/yPxWvhPISKo — TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Preview and Intro 00:01:11 Sponsors — HockeyStack | RightRev | Tropic 00:05:15 Super Bowl Ads, QR Codes, and CFO Risk Assessment 00:08:37 Super Bowl Ads as Ego vs. Economic Signal 00:11:21 Bottom-Up PLG and the Expensify Playbook 00:12:56 Which B2B Companies Can Justify a Super Bowl Ad 00:14:44 CPM Math and Why the Numbers Sometimes Work 00:16:28 Brand vs. Demand and Measuring Brand as Growth 00:18:49 Brand as a Moat and Trust Over Time 00:21:10 Measuring Brand Through Branded Search and Conversion 00:23:22 Attribution Limits and Incrementality Testing 00:26:12 Geo-Based Brand Experiments and Targeted Events 00:28:13 Marketing Arbitrage and Analytics Discipline 00:29:06 Unconventional B2B Marketing That Actually Worked 00:30:33 Predicting Which Tech Companies Will Run Super Bowl Ads 00:32:31 Subscription Pricing Comes to Cars 00:34:18 EV Pricing, Subsidies, and Forecasting Demand 00:34:48 Credits #MostlyGrowthPodcast #brandmarketing #b2bmarketing #pricingstrategy #superbowl

    36 min
  8. How Much Do Marketplaces Really Take?

    21 DE GEN.

    How Much Do Marketplaces Really Take?

    In this episode of Mostly Growth, CJ Gustafson and Kyle Poyar unpack how marketplaces really make money by dissecting take rates across companies like Uber, Airbnb, DoorDash, Etsy, and Amazon. They explore what drives take rates—power dynamics, frequency, ticket size, and value delivered—plus why pushing a “rake too far” can backfire. The episode blends real examples, a take-rate guessing game, and practical frameworks for pricing, monetization, and long-term marketplace health. — SPONSORS: Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how. HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com — LINKS:  Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/ Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/ Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/ Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/ https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/comparing-marketplace-take-rates https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/06/a-viral-reddit-post-alleging-fraud-from-a-food-delivery-app-turned-out-to-be-ai-generated/ https://abovethecrowd.com/2013/04/18/a-rake-too-far-optimal-platformpricing-strategy/ https://www.boatsetter.com/boating-resources/boatsetter-and-getmyboat-announce-merger-forming-a-powerhouse-marketplace-for-boat-rentals-on-the-water-adventure — RELATED EPISODES: The Layer-Cake Playbook for Vertical SaaS Growth | with Roland Ligtenberg https://youtu.be/yPxWvhPISKo The End of LTV to CAC: Rethinking SaaS Metrics for AI https://youtu.be/vh3AGdqlSxU Sloponomics: Surviving the AI Content Flood with Rudeness https://youtu.be/kOK8oJ-lhZM — TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Preview and Intro 00:01:14 Inside the DoorDash Priority Delivery Controversy 00:04:16 Why Marketplaces Monetize the Way They Do 00:05:26 The Take Rate Formula: Frequency, Size, and Effort 00:07:20 Take Rates as a Power Dynamic 00:08:21 Sponsors — Tropic | HockeyStack | RightRev 00:12:25 Marketplace Take Rate Game 00:18:26 Take Rates Beyond Marketplaces: Recruiting, Sales, and Art 00:20:50 A Rake Too Far and the Risks of Over-Monetization 00:23:29 Optimizing Lifetime Value Versus One-Time Gouging 00:25:15 Amazon’s Layered Marketplace Monetization Model 00:27:23 Brainstorming Add-On Revenue Streams for Marketplaces 00:31:21 Boat Rental Marketplace Merger and Antitrust 00:33:28 Credits #MostlyGrowthPodcast #Marketplaces #Monetization #TakeRate #PricingStrategy

    34 min
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Informació

Mostly Growth is a podcast from Mostly Media where go-to-market strategist Kyle Poyar and CFO CJ Gustafson break down how modern companies make money. Each episode focuses on pricing, monetization, and benchmarks—translated into clear tactics and playbooks you can actually use. Built for finance, product, and sales operators who want to think like owners and be the CEO of their role.

Fitxa tècnica

  • Creació
    Mostly Media
  • Anys en actiu
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodis
    39
  • Qualificació
    Apte
  • Copyright
    © Mostly Media
  • Lloc web del programa
    Mostly Growth

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