Question 1

What are the key takeaways from Meltem Kuran's episode on Lenny's Podcast?

Accepted Answer

1. Start with cheap growth channels by going where people are already asking questions -- Reddit, Quora, communities -- and genuinely answer their problems rather than selling your solution. 2. For SEO, ask 'is the Google search over?' after someone reads your content. If they need to keep searching, your content isn't good enough. Use the traffic light framework to prioritize high-intent keywords over high-volume ones. 3. Build the skeleton before you put on the makeup: ensure your website is fast, findable, and clearly communicates what you do before investing in paid acquisition or awareness campaigns. 4. When hiring for a growth team at an early-stage company, look for people who commit to revenue KPIs (not just leads), have operated with limited resources before, and are willing to do the 'little hands' nitty-gritty work. 5. Culture at high-growth companies requires 'Deel speed' (acting with urgency), default optimism (asking how it can work instead of why it won't), and genuine care for customers as humans, not just users of software.

Question 2

What does Meltem Kuran say about growth-strategy and SEO?

Accepted Answer

"When you go out to the market and try to answer people's questions, people don't want to be sold to, they want their problem solved. So those cheaper channels are often places where people are just trying to get an answer to their question. Whether that be search engine optimization, looking onto Reddit where people are asking these questions in communities, forming partnerships with other groups that are trying to answer these questions." - Meltem Kuran Berkowitz "A lot of people jump that because they think, 'Oh, it's one person here, two people there.' But when you start helping people, that combined with word of mouth, and guess what, these are digital places, you provide one answer and your answer lives out there for other people to repeatedly refine. So when I think about cheap channels, I think about where are people asking the questions and providing them the answers." - Meltem Kuran Berkowitz "The biggest mistake people make is they will just shove keywords. But the main thing to think about is, is the Google search over? If someone reads your content, if they typed in something to Google, and then they read the article that you've published, are they going back to Google to continue reading more or is the Google search over? Because ultimately that's what the search engines care about." - Meltem Kuran Berkowitz

Question 3

What are Meltem Kuran's views on growth-strategy, SEO, community-driven-growth?

Accepted Answer

Meltem Kuran Berkowitz: "The biggest mistake people make is they will just shove keywords. But the main thing to think about is, is the Google search over? If someone reads your content, if they typed in something to Google, and then they read the article that you've published, are they going back to Google to continue reading more or is the Google search over? Because ultimately that's what the search engines care about." Meltem Kuran Berkowitz: "We have this framework that we call the traffic light system. Those set of keywords get ranked by highest volume to the lowest volume. And then you go one by one and say, what is the intent of someone searching this keyword? Is this a university student looking to write an article and they're never going to become our customer? Or is this someone that is actually looking to solve their existing solution?"

Meltem Kuran

An inside look at Deel’s unprecedented growth | Meltem Kuran Berkowitz (Head of Growth)

TRANSCRIPT

Meltem Kuran

An inside look at Deel’s unprecedented growth | Meltem Kuran Berkowitz (Head of Growth)

Meltem Kuran

An inside look at Deel’s unprecedented growth | Meltem Kuran Berkowitz (Head of Growth)

TRANSCRIPT

Meltem Kuran

An inside look at Deel’s unprecedented growth | Meltem Kuran Berkowitz (Head of Growth)