Product-led growth for dev-first business: Is it inevitable?
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Re: Product-led growth for dev-first business: Is it inevitable?
#2[deleted]
Re: Product-led growth for dev-first business: Is it inevitable?
#3I agree with the central thesis of the article (I didn't watch the video...), that PLG is basically inevitable for developer tools, particularly given the way that devs push for adoption of tools that they personally like from within an organization. Cloudflare has done a particularly good job of this, and as upstarts, I'm really optimstic about stuff like Tailscale and Fly.io
But I also think that startups and VCs alike are going to have be a LOT more reasonable when it comes to valuations. You can build very sustainable, profitable businesses with PLG, but it does usually require burning a lot of money up front, and won't likely end in a Cloudflare scale home run. And I've seen firsthand how just getting a _little_ bit wrong with your free vs. premium tiers can result in some significant and unforeseen infra charges.
Re: Product-led growth for dev-first business: Is it inevitable?
#4I agree with the central thesis of the article (I didn't watch the video...), that PLG is basically inevitable for developer tools, particularly given the way that devs push for adoption of tools that they personally like from within an organization. Cloudflare has done a particularly good job of this, and as upstarts, I'm really optimstic about stuff like Tailscale and Fly.io But I also think that startups and VCs a…
>And I've seen firsthand how just getting a _little_ bit wrong with your free vs. premium tiers can result in some significant and unforeseen infra charges.
Can you elaborate?
Re: Product-led growth for dev-first business: Is it inevitable?
#5Apart from bottoms up and top down, there is a strategy called middle out where you target engineering managers and then simultaneously get developers excited with product experience and directors/VP(purchasers) excited about product value. This generally accelerates purchasing decision. What I have seen go wrong with pure devtool bottom up is devtool can see value but org does not value the tool. Just devs do not have purchasing power to get to a target Annual contract value that can justify valuations they raise. Everything is devtool space has become product led by design.
Re: Product-led growth for dev-first business: Is it inevitable?
#6This way, we will have companies that are open source but manage the ecosystem as they want. I don't know, maybe that's what it should be.
Re: Product-led growth for dev-first business: Is it inevitable?
#7Apart from bottoms up and top down, there is a strategy called middle out where you target engineering managers and then simultaneously get developers excited with product experience and directors/VP(purchasers) excited about product value. This generally accelerates purchasing decision. What I have seen go wrong with pure devtool bottom up is devtool can see value but org does not value the tool. Just devs do not ha…
Bottom-up really requires the “and up” part:
- each pricing plan targets an org scale
- and the features address those problems
That’s why websites tend to go from selling you on individual features (5 servers a month!) to team features (10 headcount!) to organization features (auto-invoice! SAML!). Your entry point is the bottom user (5 server home IOT), who convinces a manager (our team needs this!), who convinces a director (we can solve this org issue!).
The problem you’re describing is “bottom only”: if you only solve the basic problem, you’ll only attract bottom clients.
(I agree with your point about middle-out; just emphasizing the “up” part of bottom-up.)
Re: Product-led growth for dev-first business: Is it inevitable?
#8This way, we will have companies that are open source but manage the ecosystem as they want. I don't know, maybe that's what it should be.
This happened to music and TV/movies:
People pay relatively little per album, movie, or show — which is made up mostly in upsells (merchandise) or hosted versions (concerts, theaters).
I think that may just be the fate of easily copied IP — which is good for society.
Re: Product-led growth for dev-first business: Is it inevitable?
#9Apart from bottoms up and top down, there is a strategy called middle out where you target engineering managers and then simultaneously get developers excited with product experience and directors/VP(purchasers) excited about product value. This generally accelerates purchasing decision. What I have seen go wrong with pure devtool bottom up is devtool can see value but org does not value the tool. Just devs do not ha…
Do you have examples of successful middle-out devtool businesses?
Re: Product-led growth for dev-first business: Is it inevitable?
#10This way, we will have companies that are open source but manage the ecosystem as they want. I don't know, maybe that's what it should be.
"non" potential customers who demand apps to be open source likely to just want to feel safe that said apps won't go away. I've seen a lot of opensource SaaS "manage the ecosystem as they want" because of that. Actual customers be like .. I'm done when I get the value I want (don't care anything else e.g. privacy,lock-in doesn't matter)