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The marketing world is now flooded with AI-generated content and outreach. These tools make it easier than ever to reach customers, and many founders see them as a shortcut. But it's easy to forget that what truly drives connection and conversion is a sense of human understanding.
I spoke with Mallory Contois (VP of Growth at Maven and former early team member at Pinterest, Compass, Cameo, and Mercury) about her evolving philosophy that she calls “Human-Led Growth,” a framework that puts real people, not just personas or segments, at the center of your growth strategy.
From Community-Led to Human-Led Growth
Mallory has long championed “community-led growth,” or building networks of advocates who organically spread the word about your product. But through her work teaching community-led growth to hundreds of founders, she noticed something important: it doesn’t always work. Not every product or market lends itself naturally to community-building.
What does always work is focusing on the psychology of your users: what excites them, what they care about, and how they want to feel. That’s what led her to coin a broader, more flexible concept called “Human-Led Growth.”
“Human-led growth is about designing for emotion, motivation, and lived experience. It’s not just a growth tactic. It’s a mindset.”
Why It Matters Now
In an era where tools like ChatGPT can auto-generate marketing copy and paid ads are increasingly commoditized, the brands that stand out are the ones that feel personal. Mallory notes that today’s users can feel when something was made for them versus when it was run through an algorithm.
“People want to feel seen. If your brand can genuinely connect with someone, that’s going to differentiate you more than any growth channel.”
What Human-Led Growth Looks Like
Human-led growth isn’t one-size-fits-all. It can show up through community efforts, product onboarding, copywriting, event design, or even your referral strategy. The common thread is that it starts with deep empathy for your user.
Key recommendations:
Find your super users – Understand who loves your product most and why. Go beyond usage data. Learn what stresses them out, what makes them happy, and what motivates them to share.
Do the hard work of connection – Reach out directly, especially in the early stages. Have conversations. Understand what would make your product feel irreplaceable.
Create value-driven exchanges – Give your early users reasons to advocate for you. It doesn’t have to be money. It could be recognition, access, learning, or community.
Design around white space – Figure out what’s missing in your users’ lives and position your product as a solution to that emotional or functional gap.
Mallory likens the process to running an “IRL lookalike campaign”—find one ideal user, and then ask them to help you find 100 more just like them.
You Don’t Need a Big Budget
Perhaps the most encouraging part of Mallory’s approach is that it works at any scale. Whether you're launching a scrappy MVP or building a high-growth B2B SaaS company, human-led growth is accessible.
“You don’t need a million-dollar campaign to start building this flywheel. You just need to be willing to do the unscalable things at the beginning.”
Final Takeaway
Human-led growth isn’t a new tactic, it’s a return to what marketing used to be about: people talking to people. As technology advances, leaning into authenticity and psychology isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s how companies will stand out.
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