The Ultimate Playbook for Startup Entrepreneurs

"BEST STARTUP BOOKS OF ALL TIME" — Benzinga

"TOP GROWTH-HACKING BUSINESS BOOK" — Entrepreneur Magazine

Explosive Growth Book

What Can Explosive Growth Do For You?

Explosive Growth takes you inside the mind of a startup founder — sharing the lessons and battles faced while growing to 100 million users.

Create a Remarkable Product

Learn how to build something so good that nothing compares to it, and customers naturally want to talk about it.

Execute Media Hacks

Get your PR machine firing on all cylinders. Make sure that every launch gets the attention it deserves to succeed.

Identify the 3 Metrics That Matter

Gain insights into customer behavior that are actionable, predictive of future success, and relevant at any stage.

Sample Growth Tips

#33
"When a billionaire wants to work with you, never say no."
— Explosive Growth
#10
"A marginally better product is worthless. It needs to be at least ten times better."
— Explosive Growth
#50
"What is the one goal that, if achieved, would solve most other problems?"

Who This Book Is For

This book is for entrepreneurs, growth hackers, marketers, and anyone looking to build and scale a successful startup.

Growth Hackers

Learn the viral features and strategies we used to acquire 100,000 users per day — without spending a penny on advertising.

PR Specialists

Get our Top PR Tips, which consistently landed our stories in outlets like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Techcrunch.

CEOs

Create a thriving culture of passionate employees, and learn how to attract better talent and greater investments.

Startups

Get better at developing products that grow your customer base rapidly. Learn the metrics that will help take your company to the next level.

Entrepreneurs

Get lessons learned growing to 100 million users, along with a real-time window into the decision making that led to our startup going public.

Marketers

Get more than 50 ideas on how to reach more customers, acquire them without spending money, and incentivize them to invite friends.

Watch the Book Trailer

See how the lessons in Explosive Growth can help you build and scale your startup to millions of users.

Buy The Book

What's Inside The Book

13 chapters packed with lessons, strategies, and real-world examples from growing a startup to 100 million users.

Explosive Growth Book Open

Chapter 1: My Epiphany at Lehman Brothers

Chapter 2: The Early Lessons Learned from IAmFreeTonight.com

Chapter 3: Does Our Product Suck?

Chapter 4: Bet The Company

Chapter 5: The Growth Rocket (100,000 New Users in One Day!)

Chapter 6: From Revenues of $3 Million to $19 Million in Two Years

Chapter 7: My $78 Million Week

Chapter 8: Successful on the Outside, Scrambling on the Inside

Chapter 9: Solving Problems and Sustaining Growth through Vision, Values, and Data

Chapter 10: Tinder Cracks the Code

Chapter 11: My Innovator's Dilemma

Chapter 12: Making "The Grade"

Chapter 13: My Reboot

Praise For Explosive Growth

David Perry

"Explosive Growth is without question one of the most useful and entertaining business books I have ever read."

David Perry Digital Sales & Business Development Expert at Google, Adobe, and Amazon
Judy Krandel

"Finally a book that not only gives entrepreneurs a playbook on how to grow your business to millions of users."

Judy Krandel Public Company CFO and Former Hedge Fund Portfolio Manager
Brian Balfour

"Cliff has lived the rollercoaster of viral apps and startups. His first hand account is both insightful and entertaining."

Brian Balfour Founder/CEO at Reforge, Former VP of Growth at Hubspot
Payal Kadakia

"A must read for founders and CEOs who want to achieve rapid growth while also building a great product."

Payal Kadakia Founder & Executive Chairman of ClassPass
Alina Libova

"A great story and advice for founders on how to grow their business and user-base."

Alina Libova General Partner at Initialized Capital
Adam Gries

"Invaluable lessons on product, marketing, and leadership - all told through entertaining stories."

About the Author

Cliff Lerner

Cliff Lerner

Founder, Investor, Author

Cliff Lerner is an accomplished business leader who gave up a lucrative Wall Street career to launch an online dating start-up. With little funding, Cliff founded Snap Interactive. His startup would go on to create the first successful Facebook dating app, grow revenues 4,412 percent in five years, become the first social media company to go public, and sign up more than 100 million users.

Learn More About Cliff