The Teardown

Here's why I love Reforge's growth model.

Besides the obvious Casual Contact Acquisition Loop & Social Viral Acquisition Loop of Reforge's growth model, there is something more fascinating at play here.

In Reforge Growth course, they introduce a channel/product/market fit framework here: https://bit.ly/3lIdSQd that goes into detail about how you have to see the Product, Market, & Channel all together for various pairings.

The beauty I see from a product strategy point of view is how Reforge is becoming a CHANNEL for Career growth. I've used their own model for their own product (very meta I know). But it's beautiful. The Reforge Channel for Career growth gets stronger and stronger the more their Retention and Data loops strengthen.

For example, when professionals take a reforge course, and share it on LinkedIn, it enables the community to help each other. And when people land career jobs that meet their passions with the help of community networking, those same people give back to the community - further validating the channel of Reforge. I wouldn't be surprised to watch how important it will be to see Reforge drive career placements amongst the community.

From a psychological perspective, this is a sign of a very strong community. The Reforge community acts like the Reciprocity Ring coined by the sociologist Wayne Baker - which is one of the coolest ways to increase Giving in a community.