Elena Verna
Leads growth at Lovable; previously led growth at Miro, Amplitude, Dropbox and SurveyMonkey.
Elena Verna did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Our reading
The career ladder was built on an old constraint: that more impact meant more people underneath you.
Their wordsThe ladder was built with an old constraint that more impact that you can have equals more people underneath you.
↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 1st of 13 in this recording
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Their wordsI actually think of AI as average intelligence. I'm sure you will get into AGI world someday, but for now, it's still super powerful to have at your fingertips an average marketer, an average engineer, an average analyst, an average designer.
↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 2nd of 13 in this recording
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Their wordsSo, only one or two areas of exceptional craft are needed, and then the good enough everywhere else to get it to the point where you can learn.
↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 3rd of 13 in this recording
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Our reading
When the cost of building falls below the cost of coordinating, the org chart should change.
Their wordsWhen the cost of building falls below the cost of coordinating, the org chart should change.
↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 4th of 13 in this recording
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Their wordsAre you changing your organizational design underneath you in order to take advantage of all of those skills? In order to take advantage of the people utilizing those tools? Because if you don't, you're actually not taking advantage of the biggest change that is happening in our system right now.
↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 5th of 13 in this recording
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Our reading
Within about a year everyone's job will change, though people will not lose their positions.
Their wordsSo, you don't have such a strong connection to what you're doing, especially in the next year or so when all of our jobs are going to change. You're not going to lose a position in your company, but what you're doing is going to change.
↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 6th of 13 in this recording
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Their wordsHowever, our organizational designs currently gate information by design. You have all of these layers of people filtering information down to individual contributors. Well, that can be no more. You have to trust your people.
↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 7th of 13 in this recording
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Our reading
For an individual contributor to have impact, authority has to travel with accountability.
Their wordsThen, the authority has to travel with accountability.
↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 8th of 13 in this recording
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Their wordsSo, if it's cheaper to try than to debate, make sure that when experiments are cheap, approval chains are the expensive part.
↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 9th of 13 in this recording
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Their wordsIn fact, I believe that if we truly believe into this AI change that is happening in all of our lives, then ICs should get paid more than managers, because as an IC, you can drive more outcome and impact than a manager in the old system.
↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 10th of 13 in this recording
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Their wordsYou're either a manager or you individual contributor and you can do a lot of context changes in your individual role and then you can do a lot of context changes in your manager role, but switching between the two is just becomes nearly impossible. So, you have to pick a path.
↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 11th of 13 in this recording
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Their wordsSo, I think the AI's most interesting effect on organization is not replacing job, no matter how sensational those headlines are and how many impressions um they drive for people who just want to make waves. I think it's separating impact from head count.
↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 12th of 13 in this recording
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Their wordsSo, management needs to be a career path, not a promotion.
↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 13th of 13 in this recording
- 20 months earlier
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Their wordsI really believe that the founder led growth is not being popularized enough that you do not need growth teams until you actually can start running experiments on your user base
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 1st of 26 in this recording
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Our reading
A company with ten customers has no data, and a growth team cannot function without data.
Their wordsif you have 10 users or 10 customers, that's not data. That's a G sheet with your customers and you don't need a growth team for that.
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 2nd of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsIt depends on how you're actually going to collect the money. If your money collection is going to happen through sales team primarily, then you absolutely should be hiring sales way before growth.
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 3rd of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsIf you have the overall business slowing down, your head of growth is destined to fail because the reason business is slowing down is much deeper than not having a growth team.
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 4th of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsGrowth team can optimize. Growth can maybe lift it by 10, 15% maybe that's enough for you even that like is on the upper end of what growth team would be able to do if there is a slow down trajectory
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 5th of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsnever ever once have I seen a rebrand or redesign, especially of your key marketing site produce good performance results.
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 6th of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsBut to ever promise a homepage redesign or marketing site redesign in order to drive more acquisition is a failed promise that is going to be led by lots of agency money spending, uh often a million dollars plus
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 7th of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsbecause copying competition is like the fastest way to mediocrity because you'll never be a leader if you copied somebody else.
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 8th of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsSo, taking also any benchmark that is derived from competition and saying this is where we should be is also so dangerous because it might not even be applicable depending on how you define the metric.
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 9th of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsI mean, I've been doing this for over 15 years. If there were any shortcuts, I'd be all over them. There are patterns and there are frameworks, but there's no shortcuts.
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 10th of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsbut I'm very sorry to break it to all of you, but your problem is not unique. I'm 99% sure of that. Your problem has been felt by somebody somewhere and probably many, many places
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 11th of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsAnd number one thing that whenever you have an initiative or whenever you have a metric that you need to go and move, do not start from scratch ever. Do not start from scratch.
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 12th of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsMy big motto like life motto in growth is that you have to fail to learn. You can't just constantly succeed. Success is an output of a lot of failures.
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 13th of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsAn algorithm can give it, but algorithm can also take it away at any point and you have no control because you don't own those channels.
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 14th of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsFocusing on these earned channels that you own becomes the utmost priority. And if you don't have them on your growth road map, you're going to be in some really big trouble over the next year to two years because your cost of acquisition is only going to go up.
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 15th of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsAnd the percentage of those recipients sign up to become Dropbox users, and that accounts for 50% of acquisition. That is a stable, earned channel that nobody can compete with.
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 16th of 26 in this recording
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Their wordsIf you have a growth model that works for you, that's wonderful. Good for you. Optimize it, grow it, scale it, create a team that will be nurturing it and that will be amplifying it. But you're going to need to evolve it. And that evolution needs to come through overlaying other growth models on top of it.
↗10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)youtube.com 17th of 26 in this recording