Impact of Growth Hacking and Marketing Technologies in the French Start-up ecosystem: differences, challenges, and success stories

There are hundreds of examples of new companies which have reached their target group fast and gone viral within just few years or even within few months. This phenomenon is called growth hacking: adding revenues to the bottom line in a fast and effective way. Growth hacking is indeed an increasingly in-demand skill in the startup and small business world as it provides budget- constrains solutions for a fast growth. Its popularity from the US Silicon Valley hub has exploded in recent years and growth hackers are now taking seats in the executive suites at many companies worldwide. However, little research is available on growth hacking impact in Europe and its main start-up hubs. This is why this report aims to determinate how French start-ups define growth hacking concept and implement it into their business model. In particular, France has been selected as the target research country as it represents one of the biggest start-up hub in Europe, strongly supported by the local government as well. To answer my research questions, a qualitative method implying the use of semi-structured interviews has been chosen. In order to best represent the French start-up ecosystem, the study took into account 3 categories of start-up: from the most promising to become unicorns (Next40ranking) to the non-ranked but undoubtedly popular stat-ups (Non- ranked). In total, 12 interviews (4 per category) were conducted to people assimilated as the head of growth or managers related to growth/marketing role in each start-up selected. As main results, it appears that the business model and the size of the company are the main factors that will influence Growth hacking implementation. The main difference between the start-ups of the sample is the tendency of focusing on Acquisition for company with a French DNA whereas companies with a US DNA will implement growth on the entire conversion funnel which will have an impact on the product as well. Clear outcome of the research is that Marketing and Growth are highly correlated and interconnected.