Notorious PLG 6.29.22: Always Be Launchin' (ABL)
Weekly update email on the most important product-led growth ("PLG") companies and strategies
Current subscribers: 1,975
Always Be Launchin’ (ABL)
It shouldn’t surprise you that there is a positive correlation between product velocity and startup success: companies that can ship product quickly tend to outpace comptitors and often win the love and loyalty of their customers. Put simply, shipping fast and often is necessary to win. I am here to say that you should not only ship often, but you should launch often! What is the difference between shipping and launching? Shipping is pushing out new product. Launching is making a marketing splash about the new product. Launching activates and expands the community of loyal users and customers. Many startups tend to be on a 2-week or 4-week product release cadence, but they should also be on a 3 or 4 month launch cadence.
Some of the most effective launch channels are ProductHunt, HackerNews, In-Product Marketing, Email Campaigns, Twitter, TikTok and LinkedIn. Launching frequently has different benefits for different stage companies. For startups that are pre-PMF, launching frequently is an important calibration exercise to measure if the product is resonating with users and allows teams to zig and zag in different direcitons when necessary. For post-PMF startups, launching frequently can help improve retention and activation as it pulls marginal users into community through the excitement of the launch. I have studied the launch cadence of the most iconic PLG startups and many of them launch every few months. This frequency of launches can be seen in the fact that companies like Figma and Notion have launched 15+ times on ProductHunt (see images below). These launches include product-wide improvements like “Notion 2.0” or new adjacent products like Figma’s collaborative whiteboard called FigJam.
Figma & Notion ProductHunt Launch Counts:
When evaluating early stage startups, I have always looked for teams that ship frequently, but more recently I have been prioritizng startups that not only ship often, but launch often. ABL!
I would love to hear your feedback. Please email me at zach@wing.vc
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Recent PLG Financings (Private Companies):
Series A:
Deno, the development company behind Deno runtime, has raised $21M. The round was led by Sequoia, with participation from Four Rivers Ventures, Rauch Capital, Long Journey Ventures, the Mozilla Corporation and Shasta Ventures.
Eppo, a platform for product experimentation, has raised $19.5M. The $16M Series A was led by Menlo Ventures and the $3.5M seed was led by Amplify Partners.
Series B:
Appsmith, an Indian low-code platform for building business apps, has raised $41M. Insight Partners led the round, and was joined by Accel, Canaan Partners and OSS Capital.
Courier, a startup that provides an API and “studio” to send and build notifications across multiple channels, has raised $35M. The round was led by GV, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, Twilio Ventures, Slack Fund and Y Combinator.
Evinced, a Palo Alto-based web and mobile development software startup, has raised $38M. Insight Partners led the round, and was joined by M12, BGV, Capital One Ventures and Engineering Capital.
Ledger Investing, an online insurance marketplace designed to improve risk transparency and standardization in creating insurance-linked securities, has raised $75M. The round was led by WestCap, with participation from Teachers’ Venture Growth, Intact Ventures, SignalFire, MassMutual Ventures, Allegis Capital and Accel.
Strapi, an open-source headless content management system intended to help developers build the powerful back end with minimal effort, has raised $31M. The round was led by CRV, with participation from Flex Capital, Index Ventures, BPI France and Raise Sherpas.
Series C:
LogRocket, a provider of software frontend monitoring and analytics services, has raised $25M. The round was co-led by Delta-V Capital and Battery Ventures.
Veza, a data security platform intended to secure data in the multi-cloud era, has raised $53M at a $405M valuation. The round was led by Accel, with participation from GV, Bain Capital, Ballistic Ventures, Blackstone, True Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners.
Series D:
Platform.sh, a web app development tools company, has raised $140M. The round was led by Digital+Partners and Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, with participation from BGV, Eurazeo, Hiinov and Partech.
Recent PLG Performance (Public Companies):
Financial data as of previous business day market close.
15 Biggest Stock Gainers (1 month):
Best-in-Class PLG Benchmarking:
15 Highest EV / NTM Multiples:
Complete Notorious PLG Dataset (click to zoom):
Note: TTM = Trailing Twelve Months; NTM = Next Twelve Months. Rule of 40 = TTM Revenue Growth % + FCF Margin %. GM-Adjusted CAC Payback = Change in Quarterly Revenue / (Gross Margin % * Prior Quarter Sales & Marketing Expense) * 12. Recent IPOs will have temporary “N/A”s as Wall Street Research has to wait to initiate converge.