20Growth: The $6.6B Growth Engine Behind ElevenLabs | Why ElevenLabs Do Not Have PMs | The 7 Part Launch Playbook to Crush All Launches with Luke Harries, Head of Growth @ ElevenLabs
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Podcast Summary
Luke Harries, Head of Growth at ElevenLabs, shares his journey from a Cambridge hackathon winner to leading growth at one of AI's fastest-scaling companies, now valued at $6.6 billion. (03:00) In this masterclass on modern growth strategy, Luke reveals how ElevenLabs breaks conventional wisdom by successfully executing a horizontal product strategy across multiple ICPs - from developers to creators to enterprises. (11:21) He dives deep into their innovative organizational structure, including why they eliminated product managers entirely, their sharded growth team approach, and their seven-part launch playbook that consistently generates 200K-700K views per product release. (22:17) Luke also shares counterintuitive insights on when to avoid paid marketing, why video motion design is underrated, and how they've built one of the most effective go-to-market engines in AI.
- Main Themes: Horizontal product strategy execution, innovative team structures without traditional PMs, launch playbooks for viral distribution, and scaling growth in the AI era
Speakers
Luke Harries
Luke Harries is Head of Growth at ElevenLabs, where he leads marketing, product, engineering, and developer experience for the $6.6B AI audio company. Previously, Luke held roles at PostHog and Microsoft, and is also an angel investor supporting startups like Lovable and Runna. He started his career after winning a Microsoft Prize at a Cambridge hackathon at age 19, which led to his first job at Microsoft and a lasting friendship with ElevenLabs co-founder Mati.
Key Takeaways
Start with Generalist Growth, Not Specialists
Luke emphasizes that early-stage companies should hire one generalist growth marketer who handles everything from messaging and positioning to channel setup and testing. (15:08) The reason is that splitting these functions too early leads to either great positioning with no awareness, or broad awareness with poor conversion. This generalist must deeply understand the product - if it's technical, they need to be technical; if it's consumer-focused, they need to understand virality and consumer behavior. Only after establishing product-market fit should companies move to specialized channel experts.
Eliminate Product Managers for Faster Innovation
ElevenLabs operates without traditional product managers, instead having engineers own the entire product development cycle from ideation to analysis. (49:41) Luke argues that when engineers understand users and context deeply, they generate better ideas and can execute faster without permission layers. They've replaced the traditional PM role with "growth" roles that combine former PM skills with marketing, while ensuring engineers pass rigorous product challenges that test their ability to research competitors, create wireframes, and design system architecture.
Master the 30-Second Video Rule
For product launches, Luke advocates for motion design videos over founder-led content, focusing all attention on making the first 30 seconds incredible. (16:39) He argues that unless you have MrBeast-level editing skills, founder monologues lose audience attention quickly. Motion design allows you to focus on core value propositions through abstract, attention-grabbing graphics. While you can extend videos to 5 minutes, recognize that most drop-off happens after 30 seconds, so nail that opening hook with your key message.
Execute Sharded Growth Teams for Horizontal Products
When building multiple products for different audiences, create dedicated growth teams for each product line rather than trying to serve all ICPs with one horizontal team. (13:47) Luke explains how ElevenLabs has separate growth teams for consumer apps, creators, developers, and enterprise - each with their own growth marketers, paid ads specialists, and community managers. They supplement this with horizontal channel specialists (performance marketing, SEO) who support all teams, creating both focused execution and shared expertise.
Avoid Paid Marketing Until You Have PMF
The most expensive mistake Luke sees founders make is starting paid marketing too early, before achieving product-market fit. (59:28) Without PMF, founders waste time optimizing funnels, conversion rates, and creative assets instead of building an incredible product. For B2B companies, the combination of exceptional product development and strong organic launches is sufficient to achieve initial PMF. Only consumer products should consider early paid marketing, since distribution is inherently more challenging in consumer markets where organic discovery is limited.
Statistics & Facts
- ElevenLabs enterprise marketing team will be 20 people by the end of the year, with their mobile app having its own 5-10 person growth team, demonstrating their sharded growth approach. (14:14)
- Approximately 70% of core engineering code at ElevenLabs is now AI-generated, with Luke personally writing code 20% of the time exclusively through Cursor's chat interface. (52:28)
- Every major ElevenLabs launch generates between 200,000 and 700,000 views, making their launch videos more cost-effective than equivalent Facebook ad spend based on CPM calculations. (21:05)
