What This Book Is, How it Can Help You, and Who I am
Right now, the survival rate for product-led companies is shockingly low, with most failing to sustain themselves.
A new, more reliable playbook is required. I am guessing that’s why you’re reading this book.
This book exists for two reasons:
- To Scale Your Business: My primary goal is to help your product-led business thrive as quickly as possible so you can validate that my playbook works.
- To Partner for Greater Impact: Once you’ve seen the results for yourself, I want to partner with ambitious SaaS founders like you—companies I believe have the potential to become the obvious choice in their market.
We’re building a portfolio of product-led companies poised to become the obvious choice in their markets, and we want you to be a part of it.
This is not a book about why you should become product-led. If you’re not convinced product-led growth (PLG) is right for you, read my bestselling book Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself.
This book is for ambitious SaaS founders and their go-to-market (GTM) teams who want to build a multi-million dollar business with a lean team. Simply telling companies to be like Slack, Zoom, or Canva isn’t actionable. This is the no-BS manual on how to actually do it.
What follows is a practical, 9-part system that will change the way you scale a product-led business, and perhaps the way you do business, forever.
At ProductLed, we help SaaS companies transition from winging it with PLG to scaling every year. Since 2017, we’ve helped 400+ SaaS companies generate over $1B+ in self-serve revenue.
This system will work for you if you have a solid product, some customers, and solve a meaningful problem in the market. Please don’t read this book if you don’t have customers yet.
Although a product-led motion will help you get more customers in a scalable way, you need to start by talking to potential customers before rolling it out. Don’t skip customer development.
As Steve Blank, the Pioneer of Customer Development, would say, "Cheating on customer development is like cheating on your parachute-packing class." It’s not worth it.
To get the most out of this book, do three things:
- Implement what you learn—this is a playbook, after all.
- Share this book with your team to go through the activities together.
- Follow the order outlined. Scaling has a strategic order.
There’s also one pinnacle disclaimer: You have to do the work to get the results.
Why Trust Me As Your Guide
There’s a mountain of content on PLG—some good, most confusing. Here’s why you should choose me:
Trailblazing PLG Pioneer
I've made many mistakes building and scaling product-led businesses (just wait for the next chapter), and I share these lessons openly. As the author of Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself, a book read by over 500,000 people, I have established myself as the leading expert in PLG. I'm naturally a trailblazer, constantly pushing the boundaries and staying at the forefront of PLG trends—keeping you ahead of the curve.
Holistic, Practical Approach
I simplify complex concepts into bite-sized, actionable frameworks. Just ask any of my clients. This holistic PLG approach covers every aspect of your business, from onboarding to pricing. I provide actionable advice that can be implemented immediately, making PLG accessible and achievable for businesses of all sizes. Plus, as a founder, I know how tough building a product-led business can be, and I share only proven strategies.
Proven Results
Whether you're new to PLG or scaling it further, this proven system has consistently driven success for companies at every stage of their journey:
- Boomi: This $4 billion company doubled its free-to-paid conversion rate after transitioning to PLG and now gets 10% of its customers from a self-serve motion.
- Keap: This $100M ARR company tightened its product-led strategy and significantly improved its free-to-paid conversion rates.
- Enzuzo: This small team of three relaunched its freemium model and doubled its conversion rate within six months.
PLG works. But it’s not a magic bullet.