Nikhil Samuel

Writing

The Memory Layer: Why Your PRD Should Be Queryable October 2025
How queryable PRDs create optionality, compress time-to-validation from weeks to days.
What I've learnt from The Righteous Mind October 2020
Key learnings from Jonathan Haidt's book on morality and human nature.

2018

Is referral marketing dead? April 2018
Exploring whether traditional referral marketing is saturated and what comes next.
What you need to do before measuring Net Promoter Score March 2018
A practical guide to using NPS surveys effectively.
Start getting valuable feedback from your users now February 2018
A practical process for early-stage startups to collect and act on user feedback.

2017

The Essentials - Startup Growth 101 November 2017
A comprehensive guide to everything you need to know to acquire customers.
Everything you wanted to know about Product/Market fit November 2017
My curated list of the best resources for understanding Product/Market fit.
How you can apply startup growth models to your personal growth September 2017
Applying Andy Johns' growth equation to personal development.
How to build a growth model for your startup August 2017
A practical guide to building a growth model based on my study of growth frameworks.
Frameworks and Models for Startup Marketing - Part 3/3 August 2017
AHA moments, the Hook Model, and T-shaped skill development for growth marketers.
Frameworks and Models for Startup Marketing - Part 2/3 August 2017
Diving deeper into growth: Bullseye Framework, Andy Johns' Growth Equation, and Viral Loops.
Frameworks and Models for Startup Marketing - Part 1/3 May 2017
Major frameworks for startup marketing covering the classics and growth fundamentals.
Are your Click-through rates good enough? A growth study May 2017
How we increased click-through rates by 30% using plain-text emails instead of templates.
Vertical vs Horizontal progress January 2017
Thoughts on Peter Thiel's concept of technological innovation versus globalization.

2016

5 articles on Viral Growth worth reading October 2016
A curated collection of essays that helped me understand viral growth basics.
Should we think exponentially into the future? May 2016
The world changes exponentially. Our minds think linearly. That gap creates opportunity.
Seneca's Wisdom On Groundless Fears May 2016
A profound paragraph from Seneca's Letter to Lucilius on dealing with imaginary fears.