How To Evolve Your Growth Playbook: 5 Unconventional Rules from Lovable’s $200M Journey in the AI Era
In an industry defined by rapid change, Lovable's growth represents a complete paradigm shift. The company rocketed to over $200 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) before its one-year milestone, with a lean team of only 100 people. To underscore the acceleration: Lovable hit $100 million in ARR at the end of July and doubled it to $200 million just four months later. This historic pace isn't the result of perfecting an old formula; it’s the result of shattering it.
According to Elena Vera, Lovable's Head of Growth, this isn't about new tactics; it's a complete inversion of growth priorities. The traditional playbook—honed over decades of B2B SaaS—is fundamentally broken in the age of AI. Vera estimates that 60-70% of her hard-won experience is now obsolete. This new era demands a new operating system for building companies, one where the frantic, 90-day cycle of recapturing product-market fit is the new environmental constant.
This article breaks down the five interconnected rules that form this new system. Constant reinvention has become a necessity, executed through tactics of relentless shipping and radical generosity, all while aiming for a new standard: the "minimum lovable product." These are the principles driving Lovable's unprecedented growth, offering a practical guide for anyone trying to build and scale in the AI era.
1. Rule #1: Forget Optimization. Your New Job is Constant Reinvention.
From 95% Optimization to 95% Innovation
The first and most fundamental shift is moving from a mindset of optimization to one of constant innovation. Elena Vera estimates that only 30-40% of her 15-20 years of growth expertise is applicable at Lovable. In previous roles, her time was spent roughly 95% on optimizing existing systems and 5% on innovating. At Lovable, that ratio is completely inverted: 95% of her focus is on innovation, with only 5% dedicated to optimization. This is not merely a change in focus; it’s a fundamental redefinition of a growth team's charter, shifting it from a downstream optimization function to an upstream engine of core product innovation.
In the fast-moving AI market, the competitive landscape is so intense that incremental improvements on existing user journeys are "not worth our time." The real leverage comes not from perfecting the current solution, but from constantly reinventing what that solution can be. The core mandate has shifted from "optimization of the problem" to "reinvention of the solution."
I just feel like I usually spend maybe 5% innovating on growth in my previous roles right now I'm spending 95% innovating on growth and only 5% on optimization.
2. Rule #2: Ship Loudly and Constantly. Your Product is Your Marketing.
Your Shipping Velocity is Your New SEO
With traditional optimization off the table, the primary growth engine has shifted from algorithm-centric, long-cycle organic growth (SEO) to founder-centric, short-cycle social distribution. The new strategy is "building in public," driven by founders and employees sharing updates on platforms like X and LinkedIn.
The goal is to maintain constant "noise in the market" by shipping new features daily to make the product feel "alive." This relentless velocity serves as a powerful re-engagement tool and, as Vera notes, a "fantastic resurrection strategy" for lapsed users. Instead of waiting for a newsletter, users are literally logging into their social feeds to see, "Okay what has lovable shipped now?" This constant evolution becomes the marketing engine, demonstrating momentum and a deep connection to user feedback.
The only way to create a word of mouth loop is just to blow their socks off.
3. Rule #3: Give It Away. Your "Marketing Budget" Is Now Free Product.
Reallocating Ad Spend to Product-Led Generosity
While AI products are notoriously expensive to run, a core component of Lovable's "growth secret sauce" is giving the product away frequently and generously. In a new category where users may not even know what’s possible, removing the barrier to entry is critical for creating that initial "wow moment."
This goes far beyond a standard freemium model. Lovable actively sponsors hackathons, provides free credits to users hosting their own events, and encourages deep, free exploration of the platform. This model treats product usage as the highest-fidelity form of marketing, strategically reallocating Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) from media buys (renting attention) to product credits (earning advocacy). Lovable’s leadership argues this is a far more efficient use of capital than competing for ad space, as it puts the product directly into the hands of advocates who will do the marketing for them.
if somebody one of our users stands up and say hey I'm going to have a hackathon at my work unlovable can you give us some free credits to play with why would we prevent a person who wants to do all of the marketing and activating for us from using us we're like take it how much do you need.
4. Rule #4: The Bar Has Been Raised from "Viable" to "Lovable."
Why 'Viable' Is No Longer Good Enough
The 30-40% of the old playbook that still applies includes foundational concepts like retention and monetization. However, these frameworks are now viewed through a new, much more demanding lens: the "minimum lovable product" (MLP).
The era of the "minimum viable product" (MVP) is over. In a crowded AI market where core functionality is quickly becoming table stakes, the key differentiator is a delightful, human-centric user experience. At Lovable, the ultimate goal is to create an experience that "blows their socks off," generating powerful word-of-mouth. This principle is so ingrained that, according to Vera, "the best way to fix a bug at lovable is to say this is not lovable." When that phrase is used, the team "jumps on it... it's getting fixed right now." While traditional frameworks still have a place, they are only effective if built on top of a core product experience that users truly love.
5. Rule #5: Get Used to a 90-Day Product-Market Fit Cycle.
Product-Market Fit is No Longer a Destination
Perhaps the most jarring new reality is the compression of the Product-Market Fit (PMF) lifecycle. Traditionally, PMF was a milestone achieved over years. In the AI space, companies must effectively recapture PMF every three months. Vera calls this new reality "terrifying" and a "weird place to be in."
This accelerated "PMF treadmill" is driven by two forces:
Rapid Technology Leaps: Underlying AI models make a step-function change in capabilities every few months, constantly raising the ceiling for what a product can do.
Rapid Market Evolution: Consumer expectations evolve just as quickly. A feature that was magical three months ago is now considered standard.
This transforms PMF from a one-time milestone into a continuous, cyclical process. This means the team that finds PMF must also be the team that scales it, blurring the traditional lines between a "0-to-1" team and a "scaling" team. The old, slow cycle of user research and engineering roadmaps has been replaced, as AI tools have "completely collapsed" the feedback loop, allowing teams to move from idea to prototype in as little as a single day.
Conclusion
The core paradigm shift is from growth as a scaling function to growth as a discovery function. In the previous era, the goal was to scale a known entity. In the AI era, the goal is to constantly rediscover what the entity is and can become. The rules of the old world—optimize, gate features, and build for viability—have been replaced by a new playbook defined by constant reinvention, relentless shipping, radical generosity, and an unwavering commitment to creating truly lovable experiences.
The lessons from Lovable's journey are a blueprint for a new generation of companies. The ground is shifting faster than ever before, and the teams that thrive will be those built not to scale an existing playbook, but to reinvent it entirely. The question every leader must now ask is: In a world where the ground shifts every 90 days, is your team built to reinvent, or is it still trying to optimize a playbook that no longer exists?
Ryan Edwards, CAMINO5 | Co-Founder
Ryan Edwards is the Co-Founder and Head of Strategy at CAMINO5, a consultancy focused on digital strategy and consumer journey design. With over 25 years of experience across brand, tech, and marketing innovation, he’s led initiatives for Fortune 500s including Oracle, NBCUniversal, Sony, Disney, and Kaiser Permanente.
Ryan’s work spans brand repositioning, AI-integrated workflows, and full-funnel strategy. He helps companies cut through complexity, regain clarity, and build for what’s next.
Connect on LinkedIn: ryanedwards2