It’s always fun to reconnect with past guests and early success stories from our Ripple Community, and today’s guest is both, Emily Lonetto was a Tank Talks guest back when it was a small in-person event at our co-working space, The Tank. Back then she was the first leadership hire at our portfolio-company Voiceflow, now she’s the Director of Community at Webflow as well as a Venture Partner with us at Ripple Ventures. Emily has amazing perspectives on growth and community, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.
About Emily Lonetto:
Emily Lonetto is the Director of Community at Webflow. She is an expert marketer and growth expert that started her career at Carnivore Club, a subscription food box, and moved onto to Tilt, which was acquired by AirBnB, and then to Voiceflow. She did her undergrad at Western University.
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In this episode we discuss:
03:11 Emily’s journey to becoming a growth hacker and community expert
05:40 Common challenges to growth for early-stage startups
06:50 Differences between standard marketing and growth
08:21 Her experience helping grow Voiceflow
11:27 The importance of community feedback
12:11 What growth means in a startup context
15:14 How startups should think about growth marketing
16:54 Growth Marketing tactics
19:24 Emily’s Growth Marketing tech stack
22:41 Analytics and testing that you should use to track growth
24:20 Using negative feedback to help hone your offering
25:26 How Emily has evolved as a community builder across her career
28:24 Factors that can hamper a community
31:35 How the Webflow community guided her even before working there
33:11 Positives of having a strong community
35:32 Misconceptions around community for early stage founders
38:41 How growth in community is defined at Webflow
41:05 Emily’s strong contribution to the Ripple ecosystem
Fast Favorites
🎙- Favorite Podcast: Reply All
📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Lenny Rachitsky
📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: iPhone 14
📈- Favorite New Trend: The comeback of emo and alternative music
📚- Favorite Book: Moonwalking with Einstein
🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Change is made up of dozens of small iterations
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Community Building and Growth Hacks, Emily Lonetto of Webflow