SaaStr 494: Demystifying the Unicorn Buzz with the CEOs of Calendly, Algolia, and Contentful
Reaching unicorn status is goal #1 for many startups. In this podcast, Tope Awotona, CEO at Calendly, Bernadette Nixon, CEO at Algolia, Steve Sloan, CEO at Contentful and by Casey Renner, Partner at OpenView discuss how high-growth companies can strive for profitability while growing responsibly to reach unicorn status.
Blog post and video: https://www.saastr.com/demystifying-the-unicorn-buzz-with-the-ceos-of-calendly-algolia-and-contentful/
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Self-Serve SaaS: The New Customer Journey by the PLG Coiner
Blake Bartlett did not just study product-led growth - he coined the term. As a partner at OpenView, he has invested in companies like Calendly, Datadog, and Expensify that define what self-serve SaaS looks like in practice.
Blake breaks down the new customer journey where the product leads and sales follows. In the old model, sales led through SDRs and demos over 30-90 days. In self-serve SaaS, users find and adopt the product through product-led growth before a salesperson ever makes contact. He explains why delivering value before requesting value is non-negotiable for PLG.
Blake walks through how HubSpot transitioned to self-serve SaaS by launching a "startup within a startup," why Upkeep proves PLG works in traditional industries, and how growth teams differ from product teams in a product-led SaaS company.
Key Lessons
🎯 Self-serve SaaS inverts the customer journey: In PLG, users adopt through self-service first and sales comes later for expansion - changing everything about how you build and sell.
💰 Deliver value before requesting value in self-serve SaaS: End users expect to try before they buy, just like consumers with Netflix. Free trials or freemium are nearly essential.
🏢 Transition with a separate product, not a retrofit: HubSpot launched Sidekick/Signals as a PLG "startup within a startup" rather than bolting self-service onto their existing marketing suite.
🛠️ Build self-serve SaaS for end user annoyance, not executive ROI: Calendly succeeds because it removes scheduling pain felt by individual reps, not because a VP calculated meeting efficiency ROI.
🚀 Growth teams own activation in self-serve SaaS: Unlike product teams that ship features, growth teams accelerate users from signup to the aha moment in the product-led growth journey.
Chapters
Introduction
Blake's quotes - be contrarian and right, be yourself
What OpenView does - expansion-stage SaaS investing
Blake coined the term product-led growth
Defining product-led growth
PLG is not new - SurveyMonkey and Atlassian pioneered it
The new customer journey vs. the old one
Why free is nearly essential for self-serve SaaS
PLG is not anti-sales - sales comes later
How a sales-led CEO should start the PLG transition
The mistake of just adding a signup form
HubSpot's startup within a startup PLG transition
Building for end users vs. executives
Can PLG work in any SaaS market and industry
Growth teams - what they are and where they sit
Upkeep proves PLG works in traditional industries
Lightning round
Where to find Blake - OpenView and LinkedIn
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/263
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
SaaStr 031: Is Product Market Fit & Customer Value Binary & The Importance of Product-Led Growth with Blake Bartlett @ OpenView
Blake Bartlett is a Partner @ Openview Ventures where he helps identify value and lead investments in product-led businesses driving market dislocation. Prior to joining OpenView, he was a Vice President at Battery Ventures, where he focused on growth-stage software and Internet businesses. Blake joined Battery in 2009 and helped lead 10 investments including the likes of Wayfair, Optimizely, Sprinklr, and Glassdoor.
In Today's Show We Discuss:
Why Blake decided to invest in SaaS over other sectors?
Whether the rise of the bottoms up SaaS sales model means customer fickleness for SaaS products will increase?
Does product led growth contradict tradition SaaS sales beliefs? How can they work in unison?
Is product market fit and customer value a binary result? Are there varying degrees of customer value? How important is time to customer value?
How can startups look to pull product-led growth off? What were Blake's biggest takeaways from watching the likes of Optimizely and Expensify?
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
Saastr
Blake Bartlett
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