Pierre-Jean Hillions Explains the 4 Essential Growth Loops

Pierre-Jean heads growth at BlaBlaCar and is also author of the book "The Growth Mind."
Guest Author: Pierre-Jean Hillion

Unlocking growth often starts with a shift in perspective 🔭
And Growth Loops are a wonderful framework to escape the trap of the traditional funnel vision.

Let’s break down 4 examples of loops you can implement, either to boost acquisition or engagement 👇

📈 Organic Viral Loop – Figma
Figma is a tool to create web and mobile designs.

By having collaboration at the core of their value proposition, they created an organic Viral Loop:
○ A new user joins and invites teammates.
○ Teammates accept invites, becoming new users themselves.

Every new user can bring >1 new user. This creates a multiplying effect on user acquisition, reducing CAC significantly.
It’s a great example of Product-Led Growth.

🔍 User Generated Content (SEO) loop – Substack
Substack is a platform to host newsletters and podcasts (I personally use it for my newsletter).

They leverage a loop where content published by creators acts as an acquisition lever:
○ Creators publish; their articles get indexed on search engines.
○ New readers find these articles, leading them to Substack.
○ Many sign up, and some become creators, fueling a self-sustaining growth cycle.

📰 Habit Loop – The New York Times
The NYT transforms casual readers into daily subscribers, by creating engagement and reading habits:
○ Readers receive daily push notifications, inviting them to read daily news or a specific article.
○ Readers, with those reminders, develop a habit of connecting daily, boosting engagement.

The push notification is an external trigger to help readers develop a regular habit.

🚙 Environment Loop – BlaBlaCar Daily
BlaBlaCar Daily is our commuting carpooling app at BlaBlaCar:
○ Integrated as a “Ride service” option within Google Maps, people searching for an itinerary can see BlaBlaCar Daily as an option if a ride is available.
○ They eventually book a ride and, if doing new searches in the future, we’ll see BlaBlaCar Daily again.

This channel also drives awareness, even if people don’t book a carpool ride directly.

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While those examples are ones of well-established and popular companies, they can be adapted for many products.
The key is to have to have loops aligned with your product’s unique value, economics, and distribution channels.