The new AI growth playbook for 2026: How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year | Elena Verna (Head of Growth)

Overview

This episode dives into the groundbreaking growth strategies of Lovable, an AI-powered app builder that achieved $200 million in ARR within a year. Elena Verna, Head of Growth, shares how traditional growth playbooks are being rewritten for AI companies, emphasizing innovation, rapid iteration, and unconventional tactics like giving away the product for free. The discussion also explores the challenges of maintaining product-market fit in a fast-evolving AI landscape and the cultural shifts required to thrive in this space.

Notable Quotes

- The only way to create a word-of-mouth loop is just to blow their socks off. – Elena Verna, on the importance of delivering exceptional product experiences.

- We don't optimize for revenue at all. Our revenue is an outcome of trying to get more people through the door. – Elena Verna, on prioritizing user adoption over short-term monetization.

- Viability is left in the 2010s. Now it's about building a minimum lovable product. – Elena Verna, on the new standard for product development.

🚀 The New AI Growth Playbook

- Traditional growth tactics are only 30-40% applicable in AI. Lovable focuses on innovation over optimization, with 95% of growth efforts dedicated to creating new features and growth loops.

- The growth team works on core product innovations, such as integrating with Shopify and enabling voice interactions, rather than just optimizing existing user journeys.

- Activation, traditionally a growth team focus, is embedded within the product team, ensuring the AI agent delivers immediate value.

🎁 Giving Away the Product as a Growth Strategy

- Lovable leans heavily on freemium and free credits to lower barriers to entry, treating these costs as marketing expenses.

- Sponsoring hackathons and events with free credits encourages organic adoption and word-of-mouth marketing.

- This approach is particularly effective in competitive markets, where early exposure and user delight drive retention and growth.

📣 Building in Public and Social Media as Growth Drivers

- Lovable maintains constant visibility by shipping features daily and sharing updates on social media.

- Founder-led and employee-driven social media posts amplify the brand’s presence, creating a sense of momentum and innovation.

- Influencer marketing outperforms paid social ads, leveraging creators to showcase the product’s capabilities in engaging ways.

🌊 The Product-Market Fit Treadmill

- AI companies must recapture product-market fit every three months due to rapidly evolving technology and consumer expectations.

- Lovable balances scaling efforts with constant reinvention, ensuring it stays ahead in a fast-moving category.

- This dynamic requires teams capable of both innovation and execution, blending startup agility with growth-stage discipline.

👩‍💻 Women in AI and the Future of Work

- Elena highlights the underrepresentation of women in AI and the need to close the adoption gap. Initiatives like Lovable’s SheBuilds hackathon aim to empower women to explore AI’s potential.

- AI-native skills are becoming essential for new graduates, with companies increasingly valuing high-agency, autonomous talent, including ex-founders and fresh graduates.

- Lovable’s culture emphasizes leveraging AI tools for efficiency, fostering a collaborative and fast-paced work environment.