Matt Lerner

Startup growth strategist, Ex PayPal, 500 Startups VC, Founder @ SYSTM

I founded SYSTM to help startups find their big growth levers - the small actions that can have the biggest impact on their growth. We’ve worked with over 200 companies and earned a 96% founder “likely to recommend” score.

Before founding SYSTM, I was the London-based Partner of 500 Startups, an early-stage VC fund, where I built and ran an accelerator seed-stage growth program for our portfolio companies.

Prior to joining 500 Startups, I worked for many years building and managing growth teams for three  startups (two disasters, one exit), and later at PayPal. 

I approach my work first as a general manager and then as a marketer, product manager or both, as needed. My lens is quantitative, but rooted in deep customer insights and testing, and based on fast iteration. I’m always learning, and I really enjoy teaching and helping those around me to learn and improve. Skip to the references below, you'll see that I'm regarded as a thought leader in many areas of business, and an inspiring people manager who reliably delivers ahead of expectations.

Founder & CEO

At SYSTM (formerly Startup Core Strengths), our mission is to help early-stage startups find their big growth levers (and pull them). We've noticed that great startups don't waste time on small stuff, so we  focus everyone on the most impactful work.

Magnus Carlsen has a coach.

So does Serena Williams.

And Lewis Hamilton.

Taylor Swift, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods – all had coaches.

Asking for coaching doesn’t signal weakness.

It signals a hunger.

Founder @ SYSTM, Ex PayPal, 500 Startups VC

What your founder secretly wants from you.
I climbed from doing marketing scut work to running an $800 million business when I figured out one thing…

Founders desperately want to promote you.

They'd love nothing more than for you to run part of their business, if they believed you could do it well.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰

Early in my career, I started working for a guy we’ll call Alex. He was 28 years old, and running the largest division of a publicly traded tech company. (I was 27) 

I kept asking myself, "Why is he the VP, and I'm just a marketer?" I studied his every move.

In C-level meetings, he spoke like he owned the business. He talked about the work I was doing, but took it 10% further – connecting it to shareholder outcomes – revenue and growth.

Nothing esoteric. He just drew a line from my work to revenue, growth and profit.

So I did some digging to find out where this wunderkind got his MBA.

Turns out he didn't have one. Just a Bachelor of Arts. In theater. 

That's when it clicked: Alex wasn't running a business because of some credential, he was running a business because he played the part – he thought and spoke like a business owner.

𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸, 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲
All I did was shift to an owner’s perspective. For example:

• Instead of "We increased engagement by 20%," I'd say: "We're retaining 20% more customers in month 2 – if it holds, that's $2M ARR over 24 months."

• Instead of test results, I'd share insights: "We learned that customers aren't price sensitive if they understand our value."

• Instead of optimizing channels, I'd think in systems: "Meta users have better retention than affiliates, so we’ll shift affiliate spend to Meta."

That’s all.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁
It worked. Within six months, I was getting invited to strategy meetings. Finance people started asking for my input, and defending my work when I wasn't in the room. 

Promotions came. Eventually I worked my way up to that GM role – running a nine-figure business at PayPal.

𝗡𝗼𝘄, 𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗘𝗢
Imagine your CEO's point of view – Busy and overwhelmed. They don't want to micromanage you! They’d love to hand you more responsibility. They pay recruiters massive fees to find people who think like owners.

You could be that person.

Just do that last 10%: Think like an owner. Talk like an owner. Become an owner.

Helpful? Re-post to pay it forward to your network.

This is weird... 

Products make up only 16% of GDP, but 47% of stock market earnings.

And services are 72% of GDP but only 53% of stock market earnings.

Why is that?

I have a theory... 

Product companies only work at scale – logistics, sourcing, volume discounts, mass production, distribution deals, expensive to develop new products.

They're just not viable below a certain size. That's why most D2C startups end up getting acquired by big companies. When they do IPO, it usually fails (e.g. GoPro, FitBit, Peloton, Sonos)

But services businesses can be viable, even profitable, at micro-scale: Law firms, ad agencies, nail salons, medical practices, consultants and accountants – don't need money from public markets.

But services don't IPO, because they can't scale revenue independent of headcount. A law firm rents out lawyers, a radiology practice rents out radiologists.

Until now.

AI breaks the fixed relationship between revenue and headcount in services businesses – profits can scale far ahead of salaries and other fixed costs.

That's why VC and Private equity are snapping up small local medical practices. And boutique law firms, agencies, tax preparers... will all get rolled up, or rolled over, soon.

There's a lot at stake – 72% of GDP!

Are you working in a services firm? Because AI adoption is a matter of life and death.

They didn't forget; they objected.

Instead of "activation" or "abandonment" emails, try this...

People don't abandon checkouts and free trials because they 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵, they abandon because they 𝘰𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵. 

Instead of sending “reminders,” figure out 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘣𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 and address the 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 – Not just in your emails, but at the root cause, before they abandon.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀
If you ask ChatGPT, it'll tell you to offer free shipping and enable guest checkout – but you know it’s not that simple. Fixing “process friction” will only get you so far – most abandonment is caused by 𝘱𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, like an unanswered question or a nagging doubt.

𝟲 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺)

1. 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 – Is it compatible with…? Does it do X thing? 
   𝗙𝗶𝘅: Live chat & detailed Q&A
   
2. 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 [𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹]?  
   𝗙𝗶𝘅: Show the main use cases, testimonials with specific results
   
3. 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗜 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝘁? Or forget it but keep getting billed? 
   𝗙𝗶𝘅: Generous cancellation / return policies
   
4. 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 – What will my boss / team / spouse think?  
   𝗙𝗶𝘅: Give them a story to justify the purchase to themselves (e.g. “it's cheaper in the long-run” or “you only live once.”)
   
5. 𝗜𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗺𝗲? (e.g. Coders, non-native speakers, gen Z women?)
   𝗙𝗶𝘅: Say & show who it’s for
   
6. 𝗢𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 – They are switching from their last product for a reason, so they need to believe your product won't have that flaw.
   𝗙𝗶𝘅: Position against your competitor’s flaw (e.g. “99.999% availability,” or “24/7 live support.”)

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝗽𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:

Don't speculate. Ask your 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴: 
1. 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 – “What are the main objections you hear from prospects?”
2. 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 – “What made you almost not buy?”

Prospects who abandoned probably had 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘴 as the ones who bought.

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗲
Many people will say they’ve “been too busy.” That’s bullsh*t. Reality: either they don’t understand how it helps, your product or site confused them, or they don’t actually need it.

Helpful? Re-post to help others in your network.

Founder of StrategyBreakdowns.com

TLDR: Worked in strategy consulting → Joined strategy team at Atlassian → Started writing strategy case studies → People liked them, so I left my job and went full-timeCheck it out → StrategyBreakdowns.comFor Partnerships Inquiries → passionfroot.me/strategybreakdowns

Tom Alder

This cheeky ad campaign is a masterclass in making people stop and laugh.

Airport billboards plastered with uncomfortably close faces and... features. 

Imagine touching down after 20hrs of international travel and seeing a 20ft nostril.

You'll probably chuckle, jump in an Uber, and remember that nose for weeks.

This is how you win the attention economy in 2026.

—

📌 P.S. I originally came across this campaign because it was going viral and came up on one of my ‘outlier trend’ dashboards. 

Lots of people asked me how I set this up, so I made a free tutorial teaching you exactly how I spot these trending topics / content / products in a few seconds (using free tools): https://lnkd.in/dnxsxJRm

In 2025 I went from $13k/mo to $24k/mo.

In 2026 I'm chasing $50k.

But honestly, my biggest wins were outside of work:

→ Packed up my cosy life in Australia
→ Donated/sold 90% of my physical possessions
→ One-way flight across the world

I've spent the last few months living in: Manhattan. Brooklyn. Barcelona. A tiny beach town called Torredembarra about an hour south of Barca. Valencia. Granada. Madrid. New York again. And now, East London.

2 years ago this was literally a dream I scribbled in a journal. 

Still feels totally surreal when I stop and think about it.

Thank you for reading this past year.

Let's win in 2026.

Anyone in London - hit me up!

—

👉 P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you'll love my newsletter - a 3-minute breakdown of the strategy playbooks and growth hacks behind the world’s greatest companies.

Join 110,000+ strategy nerds from companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, and Netflix: https://lnkd.in/g2FWfXGR

The cheat code nobody talks about:

Pick your brand colours based on the emotion you want customers to feel.

Not what looks cool.
Not what your competitor uses.
Not what your designer likes.

What you want people to FEEL.

—

P.S. I'm finalising Q1 and Q2 sponsorships for my newsletter, Strategy Breakdowns. 
👉 If you want to put your brand in front of 110,000+ leaders in tech, click here:
https://lnkd.in/e_4jPRdu

The Xbox website in 2004.

Bring back the weird and wonderful web.

—

👉 P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you'll love my newsletter - a 3-minute breakdown of the strategy playbooks and growth hacks behind the world’s greatest companies.

Join 110,000+ strategy nerds from companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, and Netflix: https://lnkd.in/g2FWfXGR

Summer 2009: Airbnb was stuck at $200 per week (!) in revenue… for 8 months straight.

Founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were running out of money and hope.

When they looked at their worst-performing listings, they all had something in common: "The photos sucked."

People were using flip phone cameras or blurry unedited photos. 

Properties were being undervalued because potential guests couldn't properly assess what they were getting.

The solution: doing something that seemed "unscalable".

The founders:

→ Flew from Mountain View to New York
→ Borrowed professional cameras  
→ Personally photographed 24 hosts' apartments

Result: Revenue doubled to $400 in one week.

This wasn't just about prettier pictures. It solved Airbnb's fundamental marketplace trust problem:

• Guests buying an experience they can't return
• From strangers they've never met
• With no way to verify quality beforehand

Professional photos provided instant credibility, visual proof, and increased perceived value.

The strategy didn’t stop there.

It sparked Airbnb's global Photography Program:
→ Network of 2,000+ freelance photographers
→ 35,000 listings shot across 5,000 cities
→ Listings with pro photos earn 2.5x more bookings

The lesson: Sometimes winning means stop coding and start knocking on doors.

—

💡 If you enjoyed this, it originally appeared in my free 3-minute newsletter, 'Strategy Breakdowns'.

Join 110,000+ strategy nerds from companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, and Netflix: https://lnkd.in/g2FWfXGR

The value of $1,000 invested 10 years ago:

Amazon (AMZN) → $4,430
Netflix (NFLX) → $5,110
Apple (AAPL) → $8,170
Tesla (TSLA) → $33,630
AMD (AMD) → $123,010
Bitcoin (BTC) → $138,460
Nvidia (NVDA) → $157,870
XRP (Ripple) → $263,160
Dogecoin (DOGE) → $367,590
Ethereum (ETH) → $2,013,020

—

👉 P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you'll love my newsletter - a 3-minute breakdown of the strategy playbooks and growth hacks behind the world’s greatest companies.

Join 110,000+ strategy nerds from companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, and Netflix: https://lnkd.in/g2FWfXGR

I'm hiring a writer!

But not just a "writer."

A Superwriter.

Here's how to know if that's you:
→ You're subscribed to like 20+ newsletters
→ You compulsively screenshot great emails, ads, charts etc
→ You can write about complex business concepts in a simple and engaging way
→ You use Claude/Perplexity/Deep Research/Zapier/Notion better than anyone you know

The job: Produce the best strategy case studies on the internet.

Start with 1-2 breakdowns per week.

As a Superwriter, a core part of your role *from Day 1* is building systems, templates, automations, and agents for research, curation, creation, editing, visuals etc.

Note: This role is *not* for you if you don’t know how to (or don’t want to) work with AI/automation to improve your output (more engaging writing, more thorough research, faster graphics, etc)

What you'll get:
- Front-row seat to a fast-growing internet media business
- Work directly with me - I'll teach you everything I know about writing, audience building, sponsorships, and anything else you're interested in
- Freedom to follow your curiosity and shape the role over time
- Access to pro versions of best-in-class tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Notion, Canva, Wispr Flow etc)
- Write + build things that reach hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of people in tech
- Fully remote, work from anywhere in the world

If this sounds like you: Job Description + Application in the comments 👇
If this sounds like someone you know: Tag them!

110,803 people read my weekly strategy essays, but I have 2 HUGE problems:

1. They aren't good enough
2. Not enough people read them

So...
✏️ I'm hiring a writer to produce the best strategy case studies on the internet!

→ I don't care about your CV.
→ I care about your screenshots folder.
+ the newsletters / YouTubers / books in your content diet.
+ how many hours you've spent using Deep Research / Claude Code / Nano Banana.

Important note: this isn't an ordinary 'Writer' role.
I'm looking for a 'Superwriter'.

You won't just write. You'll build systems.
AI research workflows. Notion Templates. Infographics. Charts. Surveys.

Exceptionally high quality bar + thinks in leverage.

This starts at 1-2 articles per week. Will grow into much more.
Fully remote. Work from anywhere.
Reach millions of tech founders + leaders each month.

If this sounds like you: Job Description + Application in the comments 👇
If this sounds like someone you know: Tag them!

Steve Jobs tried his best to acquire Dropbox, but couldn’t (and ended up launching a competitor instead).

In 2009, he made them an offer most startups dream about:

9-figure acquisition.
Plug into Apple’s ecosystem.
Direct access to Apple’s users.
Validation from a Silicon Valley icon.

But Dropbox’s founders declined. 

Jobs doubled down, saying it was "a feature, not a product."
He threatened that if they didn’t agree to an acquisition, Apple would “kill” Dropbox by launching their own storage product:
→ iCloud

But he was wrong.

iCloud was a huge success, but wasn’t enough to stop Dropbox’s historic run:

In just 7 months, Dropbox had accumulated 100,000 users.
Within 18 months, 500,000.
By October 2009, they'd crossed 2 million users.

A single mechanism was driving over one-third of all new signups:
→ Their iconic referral program 
(”Invite your friend to receive an extra 10gb of free storage”)

It was so effective that within 6 months, it was generating 2.8 million referral invitations monthly.
1 invitation sent every single second (!)

The trajectory from there went exponential:
→ 50 million users by 2011
→ 100 million users by 2012
→ 500 million users by 2016

In 2017, Dropbox hit a milestone faster than any other software company in the past: $1 billion in ARR.
The referral architecture powering Dropbox's growth combined behavioural psychology, network effects, and incentive design.
There’s something every builder can learn from what is arguably the most successful customer acquisition program in SaaS history, so I've deconstructed the 3x underlying principles into a free guide. 

🎁 Here’s the guide → https://lnkd.in/gc9-ih8J

Happy Monday. I got in a heated debate over the weekend. Help me settle this:

I've been daydreaming about redesigning the Strategy Breakdowns website for at least a year. 

Picture this:
→ An infinite canvas. Every article as a card in a grid. 
→ A new interactive way for readers to explore the archive. 

But it’s always sat in the embarrassingly long “maybe one day” pile.

Recently I came across a tool that let me prototype it in an evening.

It only took about 2 minutes of "aha" moments and "oh damn that's cool" design decisions for me to realise i had to turn my rainy-night-in into a breakdown.

The tool is called Alloy - it captures your existing product and lets you vibe on top of it

Most tools are fighting over hobbyists and side projects, so Alloy carved out its own niche: professional product teams prototyping on existing apps

Lots of clever product-led-growth mechanics and smart user psychology baked into this tool. 

✏️ Check out the full breakdown on your new favourite vibe-coding tool: https://lnkd.in/dudG8b6G  and here’s the interactive prototype I made: https://lnkd.in/dVy8zaX3

i can't stop thinking about how all software looks the same now

in the early 2000s, winamp let users completely redesign the interface

→ alien heads
→ video game themes
→ animated creations

it sparked one of the internet's first user-generated design communities

there's actually a museum preserving 100,000+ skins from that era (link below)

somewhere along the way, we lost something special:
→ the ability to add personality into the tools we use every day

my secret wish is that AI brings back the 'customisation layer'

software that feels yours

—

👉 P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you'll love my newsletter - a 3-minute breakdown of the strategy playbooks and growth hacks behind the world’s greatest companies.

Join 110,000+ strategy nerds from companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, and Netflix: https://lnkd.in/g2FWfXGR

Software looks the same 

40 years of enterprise software in one chart:

Ownership → subscription → consumption → autonomous 

We're entering an unrecognisable era.
The winners of the next decade will be defined by AI GTM, outcome-based pricing, and the merging of software and services.

We hear a lot about the ‘one-person unicorn’.
A single operator building a billion-dollar company with new business models unlocked by AI.

Im curious - what do you think that business actually *looks* like?
Whats the product? How is it marketed? How does the company operate?

Something I’ve been wondering a lot about lately. Keen to hear your thoughts 💭

—

👉 P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you'll love my newsletter - a 3-minute breakdown of the strategy playbooks and growth hacks behind the world’s greatest companies.

Join 110,000+ strategy nerds from companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, and Netflix: https://lnkd.in/g2FWfXGR

taplio

The Battle

Matt Lerner

Tom Alder

Followers

Posts

Engagements

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Performance ScoreMatt Lerner's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreTom Alder's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Matt Lerner

Tom Alder

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Matt Lerner's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreTom Alder's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreMatt Lerner's LinkedIn Performance