Here are four things most early-stage startup Founders get wrong when hiring their first growth hacker or Head of Growth:
The point of a growth hacker is to continually find, create or exploit under-priced channels and audiences.
That means when setting budgets their results can't yet be priced in.
If you want to do things the easy way, spend (ie; advertise) your way to PMF.
If you want to do things the predictable way, hire a marketer.
If you want to create results disproportionate to your investment, use a growth hacker.
But do them a favour:
Give them enough autonomy, resources and time to go and find and test the highest points of leverage in which you can exploit.
In a profession with ever-changing variables, discovery and experimentation are the only constants.