Product Led Growth (PLG) is a go-to-market strategy that relies on product usage as the primary driver of acquisition, conversion and expansion. Learn why we're now in the end user era and how your org can adapt.

1. PRODUCT LED GROWTH
The rise of the user.
Devon McDonald, Partner
CXO SaaS Summit

2. Our mission is to improve
people’s working lives.
We do this by:
• Investing in the best software products
• Driving product led growth
Learn more at ov.vc
THE PRODUCT LED GROWTH VC

3. IT USED TO BE HARD TO
ADOPT NEW SOFTWARE

4. LOTS OF PEOPLE
Long sales
process
Complex
implementation
Training &
certification

5. LOTS OF TIME
Complex
implementation
Long sales
process
Training &
certification

6. NOT ANYMORE

7. TODAY…

8. SOFTWARE…

9. SOFTWARE JUST…

10. SOFTWARE JUST KINDA…

11. SOFTWARE JUST KINDA SHOWS UP

12. END USERS ARE FINDING
THESE PRODUCTS

13. AND TELLING THEIR BOSS
WHICH ONES TO BUY

14. THE END USER ERA
IS HERE

15. AND THE BEST SAAS COMPANIES
RECOGNIZE IT
S-1 Filing
We recognize that users
drive the adoption and
proliferation of our products.
Bottom-up adoption within
organizations has been critical to
our success as users increasingly
choose their own tools at work.
S-1 Filing
We grow through viral demand
driven by individual users.
S-1 Filing

16. Everything we buy starts with a little project at the edge of the
organization. Some developers tinkering with something. A couple of
salespeople, a couple of marketers, and then it ends up on the CIO’s
desk. Software buying has been turned on its head, and you
need to market and sell to humans and enable those humans
to put it to work for you.
1
6“
BRIAN HALLIGAN
Co-Founder and CEO
HubSpot

17. WHY IS THIS
HAPPENING? !

18. 2000s
Cloud
CLOUD EVOLUTION
1990s
Data center
TODAY
Connected
Cloud

19. $10K+$100K+ Free+
PRICE EVOLUTION
1990s 2000s TODAY

20. Executive Era
CIO Era
End User Era
BUYER EVOLUTION
1990s 2000s TODAY

21. DISTRIBUTION EVOLUTION
Sales led
growth
Marketing led
growth
Product led
growth
CIO ERA EXEC. ERA END USER ERA

22. EVOLUTION CAN’T BE STOPPED
CIO Era Exec. Era End User Era

23. PRODUCT LED GROWTH IS
HOW YOU ADAPT
Product led growth is a business strategy where product
usage serves as the primary driver of user acquisition,
conversion and expansion.

24. Appeal to
end users
Price comes
after value
Measure
everything
Invest in
customer success
FOUR STEPS TO
PRODUCT LED GROWTH

25. Executive
Pain
We need to manage
our sales pipeline.
End User
Pain
I hate scheduling
meetings.“ “
APPEAL TO END USERS

26. I hate expense reports.
So annoying!
I hate file sharing.
So annoying!
I hate internal emails.
So annoying!
I hate scheduling.
So annoying!
I hate web conferencing.
So annoying!
I hate post-it notes.
So annoying!
ANNOYANCE IS OPPORTUNITY

27. MAKE IT EASY TO GET STARTED –
END USERS DEMAND SELF SERVE
Request Demo
Contract Order Form
Configuration Implementation
Training Support Tickets
Talk to Sales Sign Up Ts & Cs
Automated Onboarding
Documentation Knowledge Base
Bots Community
SSO
End users hate this End users love this

28. Paywall before
“aha!” moment
PRICE COMES AFTER VALUE

30. A FREE OFFERING IS TABLE STAKES
Data from OpenView 2019 SaaS Benchmarks Survey
PLG Companies
All SaaS Companies
Free trial Product analytics Self-service
buying
Bottoms-up sales Product qualified
leads
Referral
programs
Dedicated
growth FTEs
Freemium

31. FRICTION ISN’T AN EXCUSE TO
GATE YOUR PRODUCT
Data from OpenView State of Product Led Growth Survey (N=500)
Free
Version
No Free
Version
Product can be
used practically
immediately.
There is some
friction to start using
the product.
There are extensive
requirements
before the product
can be used.
41% 52% 7%
14% 59% 27%

32. YOU GET CREATIVE WITH “FREE”

33. INVEST IN CUSTOMER SUCCESS

34. SALES = CUSTOMER EXPANSION
55% of customers who
spend $100k+ started
with one free user

35. USE PRODUCT DATA TO SELL
Track PQLs and their
funnel conversion
Don’t track PQLs, but
it’s on our roadmap
23%
32%
45%Don’t track PQLs

36. MEASURE EVERYTHING
Set up product analytics
Define user activation
Run in-product experiments
Keep tabs on user cohorts

37. GROWTH TEAMS CATALYZE CHANGE
Data from OpenView State of Product Led Growth Survey (N=500)
Rarely or never run
experiments
Occasionally run in-
product experiments
Almost always running
1+ experiment
21%
27%
52%
55%
26%
20%
Growth Team No Growth Team

38. DO YOU WANT TO BE LIKE
THESE COMPANIES?

39. S-1 filing
THEY’RE ALL IN ON
PRODUCT LED GROWTH
Employees are increasingly
empowered to “bring your own
software,” leading to the user-
driven viral adoption of new
software products.

40. S-1 filing S-1 filing
THEY’RE ALL IN ON
PRODUCT LED GROWTH
Employees are increasingly
empowered to “bring your own
software,” leading to the user-
driven viral adoption of new
software products.
As free hosts realize the benefits of
our platform, they often subscribe
to a paid plan to gain access to
additional functionality.

41. S-1 filingS-1 filing S-1 filing
THEY’RE ALL IN ON
PRODUCT LED GROWTH
Employees are increasingly
empowered to “bring your own
software,” leading to the user-
driven viral adoption of new
software products.
As free hosts realize the benefits of
our platform, they often subscribe
to a paid plan to gain access to
additional functionality.
The Shopify platform provides
merchants with an intuitive user
experience that requires no up-
front training to implement and
use. Merchants can set up their
shop in less than 15 minutes.

42. S-1 filing
S-1 filingS-1 filing S-1 filing
THEY’RE ALL IN ON
PRODUCT LED GROWTH
Employees are increasingly
empowered to “bring your own
software,” leading to the user-
driven viral adoption of new
software products.
As free hosts realize the benefits of
our platform, they often subscribe
to a paid plan to gain access to
additional functionality.
The Shopify platform provides
merchants with an intuitive user
experience that requires no up-
front training to implement and
use. Merchants can set up their
shop in less than 15 minutes.
People love using Slack and many
become advocates for wider use
inside of their organizations.

43. S-1 filingS-1 filing
S-1 filingS-1 filing S-1 filing
THEY’RE ALL IN ON
PRODUCT LED GROWTH
Employees are increasingly
empowered to “bring your own
software,” leading to the user-
driven viral adoption of new
software products.
As free hosts realize the benefits of
our platform, they often subscribe
to a paid plan to gain access to
additional functionality.
The Shopify platform provides
merchants with an intuitive user
experience that requires no up-
front training to implement and
use. Merchants can set up their
shop in less than 15 minutes.
People love using Slack and many
become advocates for wider use
inside of their organizations.
We put a commercial transaction
after the customer is experiencing
success with our products. We call
this "inverting the traditional
enterprise sales model."

44. S-1 filingS-1 filing S-1 filing
S-1 filingS-1 filing S-1 filing
THEY’RE ALL IN ON
PRODUCT LED GROWTH
Employees are increasingly
empowered to “bring your own
software,” leading to the user-
driven viral adoption of new
software products.
As free hosts realize the benefits of
our platform, they often subscribe
to a paid plan to gain access to
additional functionality.
The Shopify platform provides
merchants with an intuitive user
experience that requires no up-
front training to implement and
use. Merchants can set up their
shop in less than 15 minutes.
People love using Slack and many
become advocates for wider use
inside of their organizations.
As individuals increasingly
choose their own tools at work,
purchasing power has become
more decentralized.
We put a commercial transaction
after the customer is experiencing
success with our products. We call
this "inverting the traditional
enterprise sales model."

45. THE PLG IPO WAVE IS BUILDING

46. BETTER POST-IPO PERFORMANCE
2019 YTD2018201720162015201420132012
$1B $1.2B $6B
$17B
$21B
$43B
$101B
$208B
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Jul-18
Aug-18
Sep-18
O
ct-18
N
ov-18
Dec-18
Jan-19
Feb-19
M
ar-19
Apr-19
M
ay-19
Jun-19
Jul-19
PLG Index S&P 500 PR SaaS Index NASDAQ Composite

47. $200B+ MARKET CAP
2019 YTD2018201720162015201420132012
$1B $2B $6B
$17B $21B
$43B
$101B
$208B

48. THE END USER ERA
IS HERE

49. THANKS!
@DEVMCDEE
@OPENVIEWVENTURE