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Wealthfront's CEO Killed All Advertising to Find Out If Anyone Actually Loved the Product

By Andy Rachleff · Product & Building · 1 min read

Andy Rachleff cut almost all ads at Wealthfront. A Japanese proverb told him why.

Key Points

Advertising can make you think you're doing well when you're just buying customers
The only way to know you have product/market fit is exponential organic growth
Delight is the greatest form of virality

There's a Japanese saying in manufacturing: you can't see the rocks until you drain all the water.

Advertising Was Hiding the Truth

Rachleff: We don't advertise on TV. We do hardly any paid acquisition of users. I think advertising can actually distract you. The way you know you have product/market fit is if you have exponential organic growth. That's not an easy thing to do.

Rachleff: Advertising can actually make you think you're doing well because you're buying customers, when in fact you're not.

Advertising can make you think you're doing well because you're buying customers, when in fact you're not.

Drain the Water to See the Rocks

Rachleff: The only way you drive exponential organic growth is through word of mouth. So when I came back as CEO, I got rid of almost all the advertising.

Rachleff: There's a Japanese saying in manufacturing -- you can't see the rocks until you drain all the water. By getting rid of the advertising, we could actually see if we were driving exponential organic growth.

There's a Japanese saying in manufacturing: you can't see the rocks until you drain all the water.

Delight Is the Greatest Form of Virality

Rachleff: The great products, the great companies, were all built through word of mouth and through great product. That's why we try to reinforce the business model.

Rachleff: We've chosen to have a lot of engineers and product-focused people. Because if we can delight our clients -- delight is the greatest form of virality.

Delight is the greatest form of virality.