January 6, 2026

Growth guru or unicorn wrangler?

Laylo (YC S20) – Head of Growth (Organic and Partners and Loops and AI) – Remote US

Fans or spam? Laylo’s ‘Head of Growth’ job sparks hype and side-eye

TLDR: Laylo is hiring a Head of Growth to boost artists using social, texts, and email, no ads. Comments split between excitement for creative, AI-powered growth and backlash over burnout vibes, privacy concerns, and no salary range, making this a lightning-rod role in fan marketing.

Laylo, the platform that helps artists message fans via Instagram DMs, texts, and email, just posted for a Head of Growth—and the comments went full stadium tour. A quick explainer: CRM means “customer relationship manager,” and YC (Y Combinator) is a startup accelerator. Laylo boasts big-name artists and wants a “player/coach” to run scrappy experiments, build viral loops, and report weekly KPIs straight to the CEO. The crowd immediately split: half cheering “finally, growth without ads,” the other half clutching pearls at the phrase “2–5 experiments/week” and the all-caps hustle vibes. The buzzword pile (“loops and AI”) sparked memes: “0→1 builder bingo” and “open Adobe/Figma/PostHog at the same time challenge.”

Privacy purists called out the “DM and SMS to move merch” pitch as borderline spam; fans of creator culture replied that it’s relationship marketing done right. The missing salary range triggered classic startup drama. People debated “AEO” (answer engine optimization) with hot takes on making content discoverable by chatbots. International expansion got roasted—“Congrats, you own EU/LATAM by next Tuesday.” Still, a solid camp said this is a dream operator gig at Laylo: real creativity, no ad dollars, ship fast, shape culture. The thread’s mood: thrilling, exhausting, and very online—all at once.

Key Points

  • Laylo is hiring a Head of Growth to build non-advertising growth channels for its Drop CRM platform.
  • The role emphasizes organic social, creator collaborations, channel partners, and product growth loops.
  • Requirements include 5+ years in SaaS growth, hands-on leadership, analytics proficiency, and active use of AI tools.
  • Responsibilities span content creation, rapid experimentation (2–5/week), trendspotting, and international expansion.
  • Success is measured by KPI dashboards, 2–3 repeatable growth motions, improved funnel metrics, and increased qualified inbound.

Hottest takes

“Head of Growth means ‘do everything and smile’” — burntToast
“If you text me about merch, I’m blocking the artist” — inboxZero
“No ads, big culture, fast shipping—sign me up” — buildOrDie
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