This thesis project concerns growth hacking, a trending topic for startups. The main purpose of the thesis is to build a growth hacking plan with guidelines and suggestions for the client company, We Encourage Oy, following the AARRR growth hacking funnel. We Encourage was recently founded and is currently under the prototyping stage.

The project tasks are (1) forming a knowledge base about startups and growth hacking, (2) benchmarking from successful stories, (3) studying about the potential clients and insights from company’ view, (4) creating a growth hacking plan for the company, (5) summarizing and giving conclusions.

The theoretical framework introduces the readers to startups and growth hacking. In the first part, a definition of startups and the challenges they are facing is explained. The following part focuses on the concept of growth hacking, the differences between growth hacking and its previous version – digital marketing and the growth hacking funnel.

Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were applied in this thesis. A survey was created, consisting of 22 multiple-choice questions with the aim of learning about the customer journey and their expectations about We Encourage services. The survey received 115 responses and contributed valuable insights to the research. In addition, an interview was set up with the CEO of the client company to learn about their services, targets and future plans.

In the final part, the theoretical base is summarized together with the research results to provide insights and suggestions for the client company. The suggestions together form a growth hacking plan that helps We Encourage acquire more new donors, bring great experiences for them and increase retention rate.