Why ChatGPT will be the next big growth channel (and how to capitalize on it) | Brian Balfour (Reforge)

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:00)
Everyone's always complaining, SEO is dead, it can't grow, word of mouth is so hard.

**Brian Balfour** (0:03)
All of the ingredients for a new distribution platform are essentially happening. My prediction, the new distribution platform will be ChatGPT. There's a bunch of signals that they're about to launch that.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:14)
This is a huge opportunity for companies to get on it.

**Brian Balfour** (0:16)
It ends up being a prisoner's dilemma. Don't trick yourself into thinking that you can't play the game. The cycles seem to be getting shorter and shorter, so you actually have a smaller amount of time. If you don't do it, your competitors are gonna go to the new platform, and your customer expectations change. There is no opting out of the game.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:31)
This is the opportunity to disrupt an incumbent.

**Brian Balfour** (0:33)
If you're a late stage company, you place multiple bets. For startups, it's a totally different ballgame. You have to choose one and go all in.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:39)
Think about companies like Zynga that grew on Facebook and then became massive companies.

**Brian Balfour** (0:43)
Building a great product is one of those things that's necessary but not sufficient. And actually, the separation is between those that build really great distribution.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:52)
What would be the backup if not ChatGPT?

**Brian Balfour** (0:54)
My hypothesis of who's best positioned would actually be...

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:59)
Today, my guest is Brian Balfour. Brian is the founder and CEO of Reforge, a company that I've been a long time fan and advocate of. Historically, Reforge has focused primarily on teaching courses on product and growth. But more recently, they've transitioned to building their own products, including a product called Reforge Insights and a bunch more really cool stuff coming very soon. Prior to Reforge, Brian led growth at HubSpot. And over the course of his career, he has seen the rise and fall of every major distribution channel, including Facebook's ad platform, Google Ads and SEO, and the Apple App Store. Based on what he's seeing, he is predicting the emergence of a brand new and powerful distribution channel that will likely arise in the next six months centered most likely around ChatGPT. It is really rare for a new growth channel to open up, it's been a long time since the last one appeared, and the people who recognize this and hop on it early are the ones that reap the most rewards. So this is a huge deal. In this conversation, Brian shares what he's predicting, what he's seeing, why this is a big deal, and what you should be doing about it right now. I highly recommend you listen to this full conversation and discuss the ramifications with your team. If you enjoy this podcast, don't forget to subscribe and follow it in your favorite podcasting app or YouTube. Also if you become an annual subscriber of my newsletter, you get a bunch of incredible products for free for one year, including Lovable, Replit, Bolt, N8N, Linear, Superhuman, Dscript, Whisperflow, Gamma, Perplexity, Warp, Granola, Magic Patterns, Raycast, ChappieRD and Mobbin. Check it out at lennysnewsletter.com and click Product Pass. With that, I bring you Brian Balfour. Today's episode is brought to you by DX, the developer intelligence platform designed by leading researchers. To thrive in the AI era, organizations need to adapt quickly. But many organization leaders struggle to answer pressing questions like, which tools are working? How are they being used? What's actually driving value? DX provides the data and insights that leaders need to navigate this shift. With DX, companies like Dropbox, booking.com, Adyen and Intercom get a deep understanding of how AI is providing value to their developers and what impact AI is having on engineering productivity. To learn more, visit DX's website at getdx.com/lenny. That's getdx.com/lenny.
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Brian, thank you so much for being here and welcome back to the podcast.

**Brian Balfour** (4:09)