DigiCom - Growth Marketing Podcast · Digicom

Episode 3: An interview With Greg Ashton Founder at GROW

·24 min·1 clip

Greg Ashton left e-tail in 2018, built a Slack group from 15 founders to 2,000 people, and launched Grow at the Knockdown Center.

Greg Ashton joins Digicom as the episode opens around Grow LA and the Digicom team’s return to the event. He walks through the move from the UK to New York in 2012 and the unlikely path that pulled him into conference work. He had never been to a conference before taking the job. Still, he went on to plan oil and gas events in Houston and government conferences for the U.S. Department of Defense in Washington, D.C. That early stretch gave him a real education in how large events actually run. The episode then shifts toward the origin of GROW and the thinking behind its growth. Ashton describes the conference as a carefully curated room for retail brands. He says the team works hard to keep the attendee mix favorable for peer learning rather than constant selling. That means turning away hundreds of applications. The goal is to preserve a three-to-one ratio of brands to non-brands. He says that approach lifts the quality and seniority of the audience. He also notes that it changes the feel of the room in a way attendees clearly value. Nick Sharma’s comparison of getting into GROW to getting into Harvard becomes part of that story. The episode makes clear that the comparison is about selectivity, not hype. Ashton then walks through what the next show plans to cover. The lineup includes paid ads, organic and offline channels, influencer marketing, funding, and AI. He presents the conference as a way to pack a lot of practical learning into a single day. A newer website feature lets attendees filter talks by topic. That makes it easier to check whether a specific subject like funding appears at a given show. The episode also moves into the social side of the event. Ashton says he is proud of the genuine friendships that have formed around it. The exchange keeps a conversational, working tone throughout. It sounds like two operators comparing notes rather than two people delivering a polished media package. That tone fits the subject matter. The episode ends with the practical details for listeners who want to follow along with GROW online and keep up with Ashton’s retail stories.

As heard by us

A focused look at how Grow uses curation and topic filters to serve retail brands.

Greg Ashton treats Grow as a tightly curated room for retail brands, not a generic stage for whoever applies. He says the event turns away hundreds of people, keeps a strict attendee mix, and uses that filter to make the room feel more useful for brands comparing what is working…

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Want a founder's take on why a tightly curated growth conference works for retail brands?

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