The only career development program...

• Created by: Leaders from companies like HubSpot, Uber, Pinterest, Atlassian, and more.
• Featuring: Top growth leaders from companies including Google, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Atlassian, Slack, ClassPass, OfferUp, Segment, SurveyMonkey and others.
• Tested: 1,000+ alumni have brought learnings back to companies like Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Dropbox, Airbnb, Evernote, SoundCloud, Nike, IBM, HubSpot, Drift, Coursera, and more.

Brian BalfouR

Brian Balfour is the Founder and CEO of Reforge. Most recently, he was the VP Growth @ HubSpot. Prior to HubSpot he was an EIR @ Trinity Ventures and founder of Boundless Learning (acq by Valore) and Viximo (acq by Tapjoy). He advises companies including Blue Bottle Coffee, Gametime, Lumoid, GrabCAD, and Help Scouton growth and customer acquisition.

casey winters

Casey Winters is a former Growth Advisor in Residence at Greylock Partners, Growth Lead at Pinterest and first marketer at Grubhub. He advises companies including Tinder, Eventbrite, Reddit, Canva, Pocket, and others on scaling and growth, specializing in retention and engagement.

Kevin Kwok

Kevin Kwok is a former Investor @ Greylock Partners, where he focused on marketplaces, autonomous vehicles, and crypto.

Andrew CheN

Andrew Chen is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Previously, he led Uber's rider growth team and has been an advisor and investor in tech startups including AngelList, Dropbox, BarkBox, Kiva, and Product Hunt. He writes extensively with over 650+ essays, and has been quoted in The New York Times, Fortune, Wired, and WSJ.

YURIY TIMEN

Yuriy Timen leads the user growth + monetization team at Grammarly. Previously he led the growth team at DriversEd.com (acquired by CIP Capital) and spent time on the digital agency side at LeadQual. Yuriy advises and invests in start-ups, as well as works on JS Dance Reach, his non-profit benefiting underprivileged youth.

1. In Depth Coursework
Each week there is 2 to 3 hours of video and written material. All material is taught by Brian Balfour and will teach you actionable frameworks to apply to your own products and career.

The coursework is comprised of original material exclusive to the Reforge Program. The videos will be hosted on the Reforge website and available for you to watch at any time during the week and as reference material after the program.

2. Dozens of Relevant Examples
To complement coursework, we weave in examples and case studies applying the frameworks from the material to recent companies.

What are the exact loops that powered explosive growth at companies and products like Slack, Fortnite, Stripe, Dropbox, Glossier, and others? And what are the building blocks of those loops you can translate to your company?

If you were leading growth at Instagram, Airtable, Front or Tinder, how would you use your growth model to set goals, prioritize experiments, and draw insights from the results? We walk you through examples from companies like the above, and many more.

3. Application Sections at Each Step
At Reforge, we believe in application over memorization. That means integrating your learning into your work at every opportunity. Each week is accompanied by application sections designed to operationalize the material on your product or company, so you can create impact immediately. You'll also receive feedback from Reforge leaders and experienced practitioners in the community for additional ideas and learning.

4. Weekly Events with Top Experts and Peer Practitioners (Both Online + Offline)
You'll connect with other top growth practitioners via weekly events, both online or in person (SF only). The program can be done from any location. Events start with an interview with a top growth leader from great companies like Google, Evernote, Stripe, Pinterest, Slack, SurveyMonkey, Segment, and many more. Then, we break off into small groups to discuss how you'll apply that week's learnings to your company, and hear perspectives from practitioners in similar roles and companies. All events require your active participation.

5. Community Support
We designed the Reforge content to walk you through each framework step-by-step. However, we know each business is different, so naturally you'll have specific questions. That's why we created a community to help you get unstuck. If you have questions about modeling customer acquisition costs, how to segment your existing customers, tying NPS to core business metrics, or anything else, you have access to people from a variety of companies, all at different stages, at any time.

• Dissect how the fastest growing products like Uber, Slack, Dropbox, Stripe, Airtable, Instagram, Fortnite, Tinder, and others grow using growth loops
• Learn the detailed components of 20+ growth loops
• Systematically construct growth loops your product can use after analyzing the three qualitative properties of every growth loop
• Assess gaps and uncover opportunities for growth by identifying, measuring, and analyzing your products existing growth loops

• Combine loops to decrease costs, increase returns, and drive sustained growth in your company
• Complete a step-by-step walkthrough to build your quantitative model for a single loop and your entire product
• Construct and implement your growth model from the ground-up, including how to drive alignment, goal setting, metrics definition, experiment prioritization, and strategic investments
• Communicate actionable insights from your growth model to obtain buy-in from leadership and across teams

• 3+ Years of Experience - 3+ years of professional experience as a product manager, marketer, designer, engineer or other professional looking to accelerate your knowledge about growth modeling. 
• Strong Initiative - The program includes both passive and active participation. Those that not only consume the content but engage with it and the community will get the most value.
• Growth Related Role - The topics we cover aren’t for every role. Typical roles of successful applicants are a Product Manager, Sr. Marketer, Data Analyst, Engineer, or Executive working on growth initiatives or making the transition to growth.   

This program is not for you if you are...

• Entry Level - Less than three years of professional experience. The program material assumes a certain level of base knowledge.  
• Career Switching - If you are looking to get your first job in growth. The program material is designed to help accelerate an existing professional's path rather than establish one anew. 
• Pre Product-Market Fit - If you are working on a product that is just getting started. The program material is designed for those working on products that have signals of product-market fit.
• Enterprise/Hardware - If you are in a company that primarily sells enterprise deals or primarily a hardware product. The program material is not designed to address these topics.

All Reforge programs are 8-week, part-time programs. They run from September 24 - November 16. You don't need to take time off from work to participate — we designed each program to fit your current work and personal schedule.

However, we also believe that you get out what you put in. The value that you and your company get from the program is directly correlated with the amount of time and participation you're able to dedicate to the experience.

To get the most out of the program, you should expect to spend a minimum of 5 hours per week on program material:

• 2 - 3 hrs on course material.
• 1 hr applying frameworks and community participation.
• 1 - 2hrs participating in an online or in person event.

Our most successful participants typically spend about 8 hours per week total. They set aside additional time each week to:

• Connect with other participants
• Review what they learned with co-workers and managers
• Apply the material to their product

Creating a compounding growth machine

We'll kick the program off by discussing:

• The most important growth question every practitioner should be able to answer... and why most get it wrong
• Why loops (not funnels) are the answer to creating sustainable, compounding, and defensible growth.
• Why and how a Growth Model is the essential tool to communicate, prioritize, set goals, and make strategic investment decisions
• ...and more

Plus, an opening event for all attendees, where you'll connect with other growth practitioners and get a taste of the upcoming 8 weeks.

properties of growth loops

In order to create, analyze, and optimize loops we need to understand what creates a growth loop. In this module we'll discuss:

• The three qualitative properties in every growth loop.
• The step-by-step process on how to identify these qualitative properties for your product.
• The three quantitative metrics to evaluate for every loop
• How to analyze every type of growth loop
• ...and more

the different types of growth loops

The most meaningful companies create compounding, defensible growth by understanding and utilizing their growth loops. We want to know what loops exist and how they work. In this module, we'll discuss:

• The 3 major categories of loops, and 19 sub-types of loops
• Detailed breakdown of 14 types of growth loops
• How to evaluate when and what type of growth loop for your product
• ...and more

how to improve your growth loops

Once we understand how different loop types function, we want to improve the loops we'll use. To do this, we need to understand the primary resource of your loop, identify maximum conversion rates at each step, and identify loop bottlenecks. We'll discuss:

• How to map your growth loops
• How to diagnose problems at various steps in the loop
• How to identify and prioritize opportunities in your growth loops
• The step-by-step process to optimize the different levers of your growth loops
• ...and more

how to combine growth loops

The largest and fastest growing products combine growth loops over time. Properly sequencing loops will build a more sustainable, powerful, and defensible growth model over time. We'll discuss:

• How to combine loops to decrease costs and increase returns of your growth model
• How to combine loops to avoid saturation and increase your maximum growth ceiling
• How to combine loops to hit defensible points in the product
• ...and more

building Your Quantitative model

The growth model is your foundational tool to operate all growth efforts around. In this module, we'll discuss:

• Step by step on how to translate your qualitative model into an end to end quantititative model
• The key mistakes to avoid when building your quantitative model
• What separates a useful quantitative model from the rest
• ...and more

building advanced quantitative growth models

The quantiative model brings your growth model to life and makes it actionable across your team. We'll discuss:

• How to add additional granularity to your quantitative model
• Dealing with user/customer segmentation, and key behavior differences
• How to model more complicated business types such as marketplaces and liquidity
• ...and more

implementing growth models + Getting company buy-in

With both your qualitative and quantitative growth models in place, the final hurdle is implementation and using the model to align the team and company in a focused direction. We'll discuss:

• Step-by-step process on using your growth model for setting goals, prioritizing experiments, and evaluating strategic bets
• How to communicate and get buy-in around your growth model
• How to use your modeling skills not just in your current role, but future roles and companies
• ...and more

JESSICA webb 

PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER, GROWTH

TRELLO

"The Growth Series got me thinking on a macro level about how a company functions and the different levers my team can impact to make a true difference.

I was able to network with people from many companies I admire, and I learned from their challenges (many of which were similar to my own).

Overall, it was hard but rewarding. It felt like being in a mini MBA program -- the material came at us quickly but the discussions were lively and motivating. I'm going through the material over and over now that the course has ended!"

GEORGE ZENG 

PRODUCT MANAGER

FACEBOOK

"The content was excellent. Even though I work on a growth team at Facebook, I still learned new concepts that I implemented right away. 

I focus my work specifically on developer growth, and based on the course content, I improved how we build growth loops into our developer acquisition channels. Overall, the course made me adopt a more robust way of instrumenting, logging, and tracking our funnel. 

Beyond the content, I met so many growth people through the events - the program is a powerful growth network that I'm excited to be a part of."

CASEY CAREY

Director, platforms & publisheR marketing

GOOGLE

"I was very impressed with the depth and structure of the content and discussions. I left each session of the Growth Series with newfound knowledge, ideas, and real strategies I could begin working on the next morning.

The case studies, real-life examples and discussions with seasoned growth leaders rapidly took each week's content from theory to application. While the concepts are powerful in the abstract, actually applying them or hearing how others applied them takes the learning to a whole new level.

I was a bit worried it would be too much about virality and "hacking" growth, which most of us can't apply in our businesses (especially here at Google). To my surprise, the topics provided coverage of all aspects of growth -- from business strategy and pricing, to user psychology, paid acquisition, activation, retention and more. None of this was 'hacky.'"

SARAH PAYNE

PRODUCT MANAGER

SURVEYMONKEY

"I strongly, as strongly as possible, encourage product managers in Growth roles to apply for Reforge. This program is the holy grail for Growth professionals who may be one of the few members of their organization tackling growth models and AB testing. With Reforge you find your peer set who share best practices and insights onto the responsibilities and goals of their Growth teams. In addition, the robust online content puts structure around the many concepts floating around tech companies and blogs on what Growth actually entails! I can’t thank the team enough for building such a comprehensive program – Reforge shaped the foundation of how I will approach the Growth team at SurveyMonkey."

HUGH MINSON

SR. PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER

SALESFORCE

"Thanks to the Reforge Summer Growth Series, I have gained a foundational understanding of one of the newest and yet most valuable areas of understanding to companies: growth. Brian and Andrew have done an incredible job of pooling and delivering knowledge acquired by industry leaders through extremely accessible content. The in-person get-togethers and online community also provide a terrific forum for idea exchange amongst all participants. I highly recommend this course to any individual who is looking to gain widespread adoption of their product or service."