On March 30, we stopped by Startup Grind Silicon Valley (hosted at Pivotal Labs in Palo Alto) and listened in on a fireside chat between Alex Austin, CEO and Co-founder of Branch Metrics, and Scott Nolan, Partner at Founders Fund and early employee at SpaceX. In this 50 minute-session, Alex shared the growth of Branch Metrics from origin to scaling the company to support 1.3B users.

Here are five things we learned:

• Set a success criteria - know for yourself what success looks like.

• If you’re having to sell your product too hard, it’s not a good sign!

• Hyper customer service with early adopters of your product/service will pay you back in dividends. When scaling your product, invest in customer support.

• Never get in the mode where you feel you can kick back and celebrate; there is always something on fire or broken.

• Always think about macro trends, where you fit within them and the broader platform that you’re on.

Want more? Watch Alex talk about his story here.

About Startup Grind:

Startup Grind is a global startup community with a mission to educate, inspire and connect entrepreneurs. Every month, they hosts events featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share lessons they learned on the way to building great companies. Since its founding in 2010, Startup Grind has hosted 2,000 fireside chats and helped millions of entrepreneurs find mentorship, connect to partners and new recruits and pursue funding.

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