- Own consumer acquisition + retention 0→1
- Funnel, compounding loops, channel sequencing
- Grown from zero awareness (push, not inbound)
- Community-led/PLG > paid; data-driven reallocation
The Growth Lead owns the consumer acquisition and retention side of launch and everything after — how the funnel is measured, which loops actually compound, and how effort gets reallocated based on what's converting. It's focused on funnel strategy and channel experiments: designing, running, and measuring the campaigns that bring users in and convert them into engaged testers. This is a hands-on 0→1 seat, not a strategy-only manager — expect to run experiments, build the funnel, talk to users, and do the unglamorous launch work directly.
It owns channel sequencing and prioritization directly (which channels to run when, how to pace a launch by what the data shows), works closely with the CEO (whose story is the current awareness asset) and with Ambi's global branding/marketing team (owning US campaign execution while staying on-brand), and coordinates constantly with China-based R&D/hardware/supply-chain teams across time zones. It also has real upstream influence — an active stakeholder with Engineering and Product on what Ambi builds next based on what's converting and what users ask for, not a downstream function receiving a finished roadmap. First-90-days success: a working beta acquisition funnel (founder-led outreach on X/Reddit, niche subreddits, Betabound, Product Hunt Upcoming, Discord seeding) converting into engaged testers; a clean Product Hunt / Hacker News launch; and a repeatable post-launch growth playbook.
What You'll Own
- The consumer acquisition + retention funnel end to end — measurement, compounding loops, reallocation
- Channel sequencing and prioritization (what to run in parallel vs. in order; launch pacing)
- Designing, running, and measuring acquisition/activation/retention experiments
- The beta acquisition funnel and a clean PH/HN launch; a repeatable growth playbook
- Upstream input to Engineering/Product based on conversion + user signal
- US campaign execution in coordination with the global brand team and the CEO's story
Requirements
- Growth ownership: owned a consumer product launch end to end — positioning, waitlist/referral mechanics, first-week retention loops — at a startup (seed→Series B)
- Sequencing & prioritization: can build and sequence a multi-channel beta-to-launch plan (founder-led outreach, KOL activation, community platforms, PH/HN) and knows parallel vs. sequential
- Operating without brand pull: grown something from zero awareness; comfortable with push-not-pull distribution, not reliant on inbound
- Data fluency: reads funnel conversion by channel (cold vs. warm, referral multipliers, activation/retention) and reallocates on what's converting, not what's comfortable
- Comfort with ambiguity: a 0→1 hire before; sets own priorities and builds the playbook
Nice-to-Haves
- Consumer AI or hardware-adjacent startup experience -Deep community-led / PLG growth fluency (closer to the core here than paid acquisition)
- Awareness of the "trust gap" US buyers have toward China-origin products and how to counter it (data/storage transparency, US-facing spokesperson) (product-positioning nous, not a candidate screen)
- Operator network for warm referrals into early US hires
- Bilingual (English + Mandarin) — relevant given roots, not required
- Referral/waitlist tooling (Viral Loops, Waitlist.co) and beta platforms (Betabound, AppSumo)
Who Will Thrive Here
- A hands-on 0→1 growth operator who owns the funnel and runs the experiments
- Someone who's launched a consumer product from zero awareness with push distribution
- A community-led/PLG-native who reads conversion cold and reallocates fast
- Comfortable as an upstream product stakeholder and the whole US growth function
- Excited to launch a consumer AI device with the CEO's story as the wedge