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In the early days of building a startup, most founders obsess over metrics: website traffic, social engagement, ad conversions, CAC. Every dashboard becomes a compass, every click a signal. But here’s the kicker: Some of your most important growth moments? You’ll never see them coming — and you’ll never be able to track them.
That’s because they’re happening in what marketers call dark social: the invisible web of private messages, DMs, forwarded emails and group chats where people share your product, talk about your service and recommend you to their inner circles. It’s the stuff that happens in the digital equivalent