Podcast Summary: 20Growth – The $6.6B Growth Engine Behind ElevenLabs (20VC with Luke Harries, Head of Growth @ ElevenLabs)

Podcast: The Twenty Minute VC (20VC)
Host: Harry Stebbings
Guest: Luke Harries, Head of Growth at ElevenLabs
Date: January 11, 2026
Episode Theme:
Exploring the extraordinary growth playbook behind ElevenLabs, now a near-$7B company, and unpacking how their radical approach to product teams, launches, and channel strategy is rewriting the startup growth rulebook.

Episode Overview

This episode is a deep dive into the unique growth framework and philosophies that propelled ElevenLabs, an audio AI company, from early-stage skepticism to market leader. Luke Harries, Head of Growth, shares detailed stories, tactical insights, and actionable advice on organization design, GTM strategy, launch excellence, horizontal product building, and why ElevenLabs operates without traditional Product Managers.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origin Stories: From Hackathons to Massive Scale

• Luke and founder Matty met at a Cambridge hackathon at age 19, winning the Microsoft Prize and forming lasting relationships that eventually led to Luke joining ElevenLabs (03:31).

• Initial skepticism: Luke admits he didn't invest early, doubting ElevenLabs would succeed in a “build world-class audio models, then sell to everyone” vision. Six months later, Matty showed him million-user traction and offered the growth role (05:23–05:56).

  "What do you mean, step one, build the world’s best AI audio model, something no one has ever done? …Anyway, we stayed in touch and then he phones me up about six months later being like, Luke, we've just hit a million users. It's going incredibly well."
  — Luke Harries [05:23]

2. Lessons from Fella and Early Startups

• Key mistakes in Fella: Impatience and market timing; they exited before the Ozempic/GLP1 wave, but company later scaled to $30M revenue.
• Market timing is critical: “If you'd done Fella five years before and no Ozempic, it wouldn't have been a thing.” — Harry Stebbings [11:06]

3. Horizontal Product Strategy: Breaking the ICP Rule

• Conventional wisdom is focused ICP. ElevenLabs ignored this, building “discrete products” (developer API, consumer app, creator platform, etc.) off the strength of their world-class models (13:24).

• “Sharding” the company: Instead of one growth org, there are self-contained growth teams by line of business (13:53–14:34).

  “For people listening, I would advise: pick one ICP and build all the products around it. However, that's not actually what we're doing... Instead we're building discrete products and the way we then tackle that is we basically shard the company...”
  — Luke Harries [13:24]

4. Growth Team Structure and Early Hires

• Start with a “generalist” growth marketer, followed by a front-end growth engineer—someone technical enough to build landing pages/mini-tools fast.

• As channels mature, hire horizontal specialists (performance, SEO, etc.), and embed “CMO”-type product growth leads per product (14:51–16:04).

  “Start with one generalist. The most important thing is that they really understand your product. Then add a growth engineer leaning front-end. Other great hires: motion designers, back-end focused growth engineers.”
  — Luke Harries [14:51]

5. The Power and Art of Launches (20:38–24:33)

• Three-tiered launch framework: Tier 1 = major product/model, Tier 2 = major feature, Tier 3 = minor.

• Launch playbook: Obsess over messaging for each audience, create a tweet thread as core hook, then layer video (motion design preferred), blog post, and crosspost everywhere.

• Internal “amplify” Slack channel has whole team boost posts to hack algorithms (24:37).

  “The biggest advice I give to growth people is you need to be loud, you need to get it across every single channel… surround sound for that day.”
  — Luke Harries [24:33]

6. Launch Content & Video: Underappreciated Tactics

• Types of launch videos: motion design, founder-led, and screen-share—use motion design by default for attention (16:06–18:13).

• Keep videos short—first 30 seconds are everything.

• In-house video is a must—contractors too slow (20:08).

  “Every launch video we do, the keystone marketing piece we ship with it is the video.”
  — Luke Harries [16:11]

7. Channel Strategy: Spray, But Focus Smart

• Own your primary channels (X and LinkedIn), but cross-post everywhere—small platforms may be easier to dominate (30:56).

• Tracking results: Assignment of leads to channels is nuanced; for brand/organic, focus on overall geo-based lifts rather than pure attribution (33:17).

  “You have to look over a longer time horizon and allow for more fuzzy attribution…. We’re not going to measure any one channel in isolation, but…relative lift in that geo.”
  — Luke Harries [33:17]

8. Mini-Tools and Feature Exposure for Enterprise

• Expose “small bits of value” outside the login to drive wow-moments and SEO (29:43–30:40).

  “What are these small bits of value that you could give away for free so people can experience that ‘wow’ moment?”
  — Luke Harries [30:02]

9. Brand and Founder Marketing

• Brand marketing matters from day one; invest deliberately, scale spend as product and resources grow (40:11–40:56).

• Founder brand is powerful—but only if aligned to founder strengths. Matty prefers in-person over social media; team members compensate (41:06–42:21).

  “I think it’s incredibly important. It’s also, though, super tough and very distracting.... Stay in that long game, recognize what you personally get excited by.”
  — Luke Harries [41:01]

10. No PMs: The ElevenLabs Product Structure

• Engineers “own” the roadmap, product, and customer engagement. Product and marketing merged into “growth” leads per product (48:43–50:25).

  “The reason we don’t have PMs is our thesis is: engineers are building the product—they should be responsible for the product… With AI, traditional roles are merging.”
  — Luke Harries [48:56]

• Growth leads are ex-PMs; they own awareness/acquisition, engineers own the product. Team kept lean to prevent bloat and over-management (50:37).

11. PM Role in an AI World

• Prediction: PMs increasingly shift to “growth” or become technical/product engineers with AI support (51:47–51:54).

  “I think PMs move to either growth… or many PMs will move towards product engineering; somewhat technical already, they can upskill and go ship full end-to-end products.”
  — Luke Harries [51:54]

12. AI, Speed, and Company Building

• 60–70% of ElevenLabs code now AI-generated (52:22).

• AI-enabled speed and capability create new, real revenue opportunities once retention is strong (53:51).

  “If they’re solving a real problem and the retention is strong, I see no reason why these aren’t real revenues.”
  — Luke Harries [53:51]

13. Metrics: CAC, LTV, and Retention Realities

• Day-to-day, CAC to payback period is more meaningful than CAC to LTV—set payback windows by product type, and scale spend aggressively while ratios are strong (36:02–36:20).
• With consumer/prosumer SaaS, look beyond seat-level retention; focus on virality and NRR at the account/cohort level (55:31).

14. Counter-Positioning and Competitive Strategy

• Counter-positioning: Take competitors’ core messaging and lean into the opposite (Ramp vs. Brex example, 45:34).

  “Every time Brex would do a thing, they’d be able to riff off the other way.”
  — Luke Harries [46:29]

15. ElevenLabs Growth Tactics—Quickfire Learnings

• Most expensive founder mistake: Paid marketing too early, before PMF (59:27)
• Most underappreciated growth channel: Organic LinkedIn, because content standards are lower and reach is easier (61:25)
• Most overhyped (“polluted”) channel: LinkedIn ads—focus on organic (61:57)
• Key growth skill: Copywriting. “Get great at copywriting… it’s so fundamental” (62:34)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On making launches work:
  “You need to be loud, you need to get it across every channel…” — Luke Harries [24:37]

• On motion design and launches:
  "Motion design is fantastic for this… make it catchy and attention focused… get the key message across in the first 30 seconds." — Luke Harries [16:11]

• On hiring growth early:
  “Start with a growth marketer. Second hire is a growth engineer leaning front end…” — Luke Harries [14:51]

• On counter-positioning:
  “You take what someone else's core messaging… take the opposite and use that as your strength.” — Luke Harries [45:34]

• On PM's future:
  “Many PMs will actually move towards product engineering… can upskill themselves… go ship full end-to-end products.” — Luke Harries [51:54]

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

| Time | Segment / Topic | |----------|--------------------------------------------| | 03:31 | Luke's first meeting with Matty/11Labs | | 05:23 | Early skepticism of ElevenLabs | | 08:46 | Fella, COVID pivots, market timing | | 13:24 | Horizontal products, sharding, org design | | 14:51 | How to build a growth team from scratch | | 16:11 | Power of motion design in launches | | 20:38 | Launch checklist, playbook | | 24:37 | Distribution & “Amplify” in Slack | | 29:43 | Mini-tools for virality & SEO | | 30:56 | Channel focus vs. spray-and-pray | | 33:17 | Attribution, measuring geo campaign lifts | | 36:02 | CAC vs. LTV, payback, channel scaling | | 45:34 | Counter-positioning with competitor brands | | 48:43 | No PMs—product built by engineers | | 51:47 | AI's impact on PM/product roles | | 62:34 | Most important skill: copywriting |

Takeaways for Founders & Growth Leaders

• Product excellence still trumps paid marketing—ensure real PMF before ramping spend.
• Compartmentalize growth by business line for horizontal platforms, but maintain strong channel specialists.
• Make launches a science: Tiered, obsession with messaging, video-first, and aggressive, shameless amplification.
• Don’t fear “breaking the rules” if you have world-class tech and the execution muscle to shard focus.
• Great engineering and product skills can—and often should—replace traditional Product Manager orgs in fast-moving AI companies.
• Brand and founder presence matter, but only where authentic. Leverage team/member strengths, not formulas.
• AI is fundamentally accelerating code delivery, product iteration, and market opportunity. Embrace it.

This episode is a compendium of tactical growth doctrine for modern AI startups, blending classic GTM theory with the fast-evolving realities of new foundational technology. A must-listen for anyone building, scaling, or investing in SaaS or AI-powered businesses today.