growth-loops

# Growth Loops Funnels are linear and consume what you pour in; loops are circular and reinvest their own output to fuel the next turn. This skill applies the Reforge-style growth loop model — every durable growth engine is a loop where the output of one cycle becomes the input of the next, and the job is to find the compounding step and stop the leaks around it. **Grounded in:** *Hooked* — Nir Eyal: build a compounding loop (trigger → action → reward → investment), not a one-shot funnel. **Go deeper (The Product Channel):** [Network Effects 101](https://sidsaladi.substack.com/p/network-effects-101-the-ultimate) ## When to use this - Growth has plateaued and paid spend is the only lever still moving the number. - You can describe your funnel stage by stage but can't say how a new user *creates* the next one. - You're choosing between investment areas (viral vs. content vs. paid vs. sales) and need to compare their loop economics. - A loop "works" but barely — you suspect a single step is leaking most of the volume. - Leadership keeps funding top-of-funnel campaigns instead of fixing the mechanism that should compound. ## Before you start (gather these) - **The action that produces growth output** — what a user does that can pull in or re-engage another user (shares, publishes content, invites a teammate, generates an indexable artifact). - **Step-level numbers** — volume and conversion at each stage of one loop turn (e.g., signups → activated → who-shares → invites-sent →...