Enterprise companies like Salesforce, Oracle and Cisco use sales-led growth to drive revenue and build relationships with potential customers.

Early-stage startups can't afford to rely on traditional sales and marketing, which is where product-led growth (PLG) comes in. Instead of creating slick sales collateral and hiring aggressive go-getters, PLG presents the product itself as the primary driver for customer acquisition, expansion and conversion.

"It's an end-user-based revenue motion," said Laura Schaffer, VP of Growth at analytics platform Amplitude. "So you're trying to ultimately drive revenue growth by focusing on the end user."

I invited her on the podcast to talk about how founding teams with limited resources can build a robust PLG framework that gathers actionable data and drives engagement.

"If you think of payment, it's just a kind of friction. Just like completing a signup is friction. Just like learning a new product is friction," said Laura. "Payment and pricing and charging is just another friction."

Episode breakdown

Introduction to Laura Schaffer and her background in sales and growth
Defining Product-Led Growth (PLG) as an end-user based revenue motion
Key components of PLG: Acquisition, Monetization, Retention
Initial steps for startups adopting PLG with limited resources
“There are bad, high-friction questions, and then there's good questions.”
Identifying and prioritizing target personas based on user engagement
Minimizing bias by focusing on user problems and using quantitative data
Strategies for moving from freemium to paid versions based on engagement signals
Using free tools like Google Drive and Amplitude for tracking and data collection
Techniques for embedding personas into organizational culture for alignment
Avoiding vanity metrics and ensuring engagement metrics are linked to value
Laura’s advice on maintaining focus and prioritizing effectively for growth

Links

Laura Schaffer, VP Growth, Amplitude
Amplitude
Amplitude glossary of common terms
How to run painted door tests that don’t piss off your users, CommandBar
Elena’s Growth Scoop [Substack newsletter]
Product-led Geek [Ben Williams’ newsletter]
Follow Fund/Build/Scale on LinkedIn
Subscribe to FBS on Substack

Thanks for listening!

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