{"id":4961,"date":"2014-03-26T12:26:26","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T17:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/?p=4961"},"modified":"2023-06-28T19:02:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T00:02:01","slug":"jason-cohen-wowed-the-hackers-returns-growth-hacker-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/resources\/jason-cohen-wowed-the-hackers-returns-growth-hacker-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"Jason Cohen Wowed the Hackers: Returns to Growth Hacker TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jason<\/a><\/p>\n

He\u2019s back! Our Founder and CTO Jason Cohen, a.k.a. A Smart Bear<\/a>, has made history as the first guest to make a second appearance on Growth Hacker TV.<\/p>\n

Once again, we\u2019ve got an unlocked link of the interview<\/a> for you to check out.<\/p>\n

During their first Growth Hacker TV interview<\/a>, Jason and host Bronson Taylor talked about the “first scaling problem”\u2014does anybody want what you\u2019re selling? Or to put it another way, how do you acquire new users?<\/p>\n

This time, they discussed the \u201csecond scaling problem.\u201d Once you have acquired those new users, how do you scale your infrastructure as a business to meet that increased demand?<\/p>\n

Rare Events Become Regular<\/h2>\n

Bronson asked Jason about one of his recent quotes:<\/p>\n

Scale causes rare events to become regular.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

WP Engine now has 1,500 servers. On average, a server fails once every 4 years. With 1,500 servers, we have about 4 years worth of days. This means that every day, something catastrophic is likely to happen.<\/p>\n

Scaling Humans is Hard Too!<\/h2>\n

The other thing that can be hard to scale is humans. So some businesses can scale without adding people\u2014like Instagram for example\u2014and that\u2019s great for them, but the exception to the rule.<\/p>\n

Even if you\u2019ve got a great culture and everyone is on the same page, it\u2019s simply harder for a big group to work together and communicate. It takes a lot of work to make it happen.<\/p>\n

The Third Scaling Problem?…<\/h2>\n

Bronson asked Jason about the \u201cthird scaling problem,\u201d and whether you encounter that when you have saturated the market. Jason noted that two things can happen at that point in time:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. There aren\u2019t as many customers available.<\/li>\n
  2. Customers are more expensive to acquire.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It\u2019s likely that you\u2019ll run up against customers becoming more expensive to acquire before you run out of available customers.<\/p>\n

    What does happen though is that marketing channels run out. For example, you\u2019ll begin to tap out what is efficient in AdWords. More people will start bidding, and the channels will degrade over time.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s therefore important to keep finding more and more marketing channels.<\/p>\n

    Double Down on What Works (And Other Great Tips)<\/h2>\n

    During their second Growth Hacker TV interview, Jason and Bronson discussed a few other topics, including:<\/span><\/p>\n