20Growth: Five Signs of Top Growth Talent and How to Detect Them, How to Structure and Conduct the Most Efficient Customer Discovery Process & The Framework to Determine Your North Star and When To Change it with Darius Contractor, Former VP Growth @

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Darius Contractor is one of the pre-eminent growth leaders of the last decade. As a growth OG, he has been VP Growth @ Airtable, where he led the growth, engineering, and product teams. Before Airtable, Darius was Head of Product Growth @ Facebook Messenger and finally, before Facebook, Darius spent 4 years as Head of Growth Engineering at Dropbox; here, Darius helped drive Dropbox to $100M in net new revenue through Dropbox Business. If that was not enough, Darius is also an active angel and fund investor with a portfolio including Calm, Airtable, Clubhouse, Census and LP checks in Maven Ventures and Long Journey Ventures.

In Today's Episode with Darius Contractor You Will Learn:

1.) Darius Contractor: Entry into Growth:

• How did Darius make his way into the world of growth? What was that first entry position?
• What are 1-2 of the biggest takeaways for Darius from his time at Airtable, Dropbox and Facebook?
• What 1-2 pieces of advice would Darius give to a growth leader starting a new role today?

2.) When is the Right Time:

• What does the term"growth" really mean to Darius? How do so many confuse it?
• When is the right time to make your first growth hire as a startup?
• Should this hire be a junior growth person or a growth leader?
• Should this initial growth team be placed inside an existing team or as a standalone team?
• Where do so many startups make mistakes when making this first hire?

3.) Who To Hire:

• How does one structure the process for your first growth hire? What are the stages?
• What are the qualities that we are looking to uncover in these first hires?
• What are the 4 interview stages to go through to test for these qualities?
• How should founders use case studies and practicals as a way to test for these qualities?

4.) Onboarding and Integration:

• What does the optimal onboarding process for new growth hires look like?
• What do the best growth hires do in the first 30/60/90 days?
• What are some early red flags that a new hire is a mis-hire?
• How can leaders encourage cross-functional communication between growth and the rest of the org?