Outrageous Startup Growth: Uncovering the Secrets of User Psychology to Scale Your Success - Hardcover

by Colin Hodge (Author), Roger Dooley (Foreword by)

Create and market products that people can't ignore using proven strategies from behavioral science.

Are you ready to take your startup to the next level? Understanding user psychology is the difference between startups that go viral--and those that go splat. Outrageous Startup Growth is your playbook to adopt the mindset and strategies that drive explosive business success. ​Packed with real-world lessons, psychological insights, and actionable frameworks, this book is a must-read for entrepreneurs, product managers, and anyone looking to grow their business sustainably. ​

Colin Hodge, the co-founder of DOWN and creator of The Outrageous Growth Method, shares his hard-earned wisdom from scaling startups to over 100 million users, navigating high-stakes negotiations, and achieving successful exits. Hodge dives deep into the entrepreneurial mindset, teaching you how to embrace discomfort, build resilience, and learn from failures. With nearly two decades of experience in the tech industry spanning the globe, Hodge distills the essence of startup success into two key areas: cultivating a growth mindset and engineering user psychology for business growth. This book is your blueprint for:

• Harnessing behavioral science to optimize acquisition, retention, and user value
• Creating FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) to attract users and identify magic moments that lead to customer loyalty
• Designing experiences that nudge customer decisions toward success
• Unveiling your competitors' hidden psychological tactics and applying them using robust principles.

Whether it's leveraging social proof, reducing friction, or crafting authentic branding, Outrageous Growth equips you with the tools to build a product that users love--and can't stop talking about.

Front Jacket

Outrageous Startup Growth: Uncovering the Secrets of User Psychology to Scale Your Success solves a critical problem facing entrepreneurs: how to achieve sustainable growth in an overcrowded market. Written by Colin Hodge, who scaled startups to over 100 million users, this book reveals how understanding user psychology is the difference between startups that go viral and those that go splat. Hodge draws on nearly two decades of tech industry experience to show how behavioral science drives business success.

Through detailed case studies of companies like Facebook and Duolingo, the book demonstrates how to harness psychological principles including social proof, scarcity, and FOMO to optimize acquisition and retention. Readers learn practical methods for understanding their target audience, from creating user personas to the Method Mindset Technique that involves deep emotional immersion in the user's experience. Outrageous Startup Growth provides a comprehensive tool kit of cognitive biases and psychological tactics that can be ethically applied to product design and marketing.

The book includes real-world examples from Hodge's own journey, including how he quickly grew Bang With Friends to six million users before selling it and achieved 300,000 monthly downloads through App Store optimization without paid advertising. Readers gain access to the Outrageous Growth Framework, covering everything from developing entrepreneurial resilience to applying psychology in negotiations and exits. Special features include detailed frameworks, case studies, and actionable strategies for immediate implementation.

Outrageous Startup Growth is essential reading for entrepreneurs, product managers, growth marketers, and anyone seeking to build products that users love. By revealing the psychological principles behind viral growth, this book equips readers with proven strategies to scale their businesses sustainably and authentically.

Back Jacket

PRAISE FOR OUTRAGEOUS STARTUP GROWTH

"Remarkable products come from understanding why people do what they do. Colin Hodge shows how psychology and smart experimentation can unlock real growth in any market. Outrageous Startup Growth is a clear and practical guide for builders who want to create products people use and keep using."
--NIR EYAL, Bestselling Author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

"Sustained growth stems from disciplined, deliberate experimentation, not quick-fix gimmicks. Colin's endearing insights will benefit any leader striving for sustained growth while managing product or marketing hurdles. The book is filled with moments that remind us to keep going, even when circumstances are tough--because magic can happen!"
--SHN JUAY, CEO of Coffee Meets Bagel

"In a future where most jobs will soon be done by AI and robots, the ability to understand the psychology of customers and partners will be increasingly important to growing your own business. The stories in Outrageous Startup Growth can provide a helpful guide for preparing to thrive in a disruptive world."
--ALVIN WANG GRAYLIN, Bestselling Author of Our Next Reality, Digital Fellow at Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, and 4X Entrepreneur

"Bang With Friends was brilliant branding. It shocked the world and went viral the way Hotmail went viral when we put the small message at the bottom of the screen. As a VC, I am always looking for the fearless entrepreneurs who are willing to challenge the status quo and potentially make our world roll differently, and usually better. Colin Hodge is a terrific entrepreneur and he is an even better writer. You will love this book."
--TIM DRAPER, Founder of Draper Associates and Draper University, Producer of Meet the Drapers

"If you're not competing for users then you're losing users. The companies that beat their competition are those following in the footsteps of Colin Hodge--proven steps backed by behavioral science. Outrageous Startup Growth is the playbook to survive and thrive in any market."
--MARK BROOKS, CEO of Courtland Brooks and Publisher of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com

Author Biography

COLIN HODGE is the Founder of the DOWN Dating App (originally named Bang With Friends), a viral product that has grown to over 17 million users. As Chief Growth Officer, he led data-driven growth initiatives for 17Live, Asia's top livestreaming app, and launched its U.S. platform as its CEO. Globally, he's scaled startups to over 100 million users. Visit ColinHodge.com