Top of the Lyne

Hey, Rahul here! Just over a year ago, I stumbled upon a phrase I was hearing for the first time and had all of my attention: “Product-led growth.” What seemed like a buzzword at first very quickly revealed itself as much, much more than that. Around the same time, I joined a young team of 15 who were building for the product-led world: Toplyne.io. My first month in SaaS opened my eyes to a whole new world of tools and products. Among all the glorious tools I was suddenly being exposed to in my role as a marketer at Toplyne, the ones that really stood out all had one thing in common: There was thought, empathy, and obsessive attention given to what my experience within these tools were like. This was a whole new level of user-experience. A whole new school of thought. And in under a month… * Figma replaced Photoshop on my laptop. * Superhuman replaced Gmail. * Descript replaced PremierPro. * And tools like Zapier and Otter made my life much, much easier. And I didn’t have to sit through hours of YouTube tutorials to understand how to use them. How were these tools made? What separated them from the tools I had been using all my life? Over the last year, I’ve had the pleasure (by sheer dumb luck) of getting to talk to and interview the creators of some of my favourite tools. And get a sneak peek into how their minds work. How they build products. And how they drive product-led growth. And today, we’re delighted to bring these conversations to you. We hope you find them to be as valuable as we did. Do drop your thoughts and feedback! And even more than that - let us know what YOU would like us to ask future guests. :)

👋 Hey, Ruchin here! Presenting Humans of PLG: a series where we pick the brains of the humans who built and scaled the PLG tools we love and use everyday 🥳 Just about two years ago, I left my role in venture capital to lead the role of “Growth” as co-founder of a newly minted start-up. Over my two year stint in venture capital, I had been fortunate enough to get the chance to dive deep into the world of SaaS, and witness game-changing trends: Among those, the rise of the developer, the growth of the creator economy, and the explosion of data teams and platforms. However, there was one underlying trend that captured our imagination through its ubiquity: The rise of the individual contributor. Towards the end of the pandemic, Salesforce announced a plan to rebuild itself as a “Slack-first organisation”! PLG had officially arrived. This wasn’t the SaaS of ten years ago. This was a different kettle of fish. The rise of the end-user had given birth to a new class of tools: tools that were all built with the individual user at the core. The tools I was now using all had one thing in common: A maniacal obsession with user delight. PLG had brought a mindset shift to how software was used - but on the other end, how they were built, and how they were scaled. A mindset shift that was being driven by a new wave of founders and leaders who thought differently. Over the last year, we’ve had a chance to pick the brains of these humans who are building and scaling our favourite tools. Conversations that have left me humbled, floored, and fully intrigued. Conversations that have helped me more than anything as a newly minted founder. Today, we’re delighted to bring these conversations to you. “Humans of PLG” is our humble attempt to open-source what we’ve learnt from these incredible founders and leaders - in the hope that aspiring PLG companies can take away at least as much as we’ve been able to from these conversations. We hope you enjoy them. Do let us know your thoughts and feedback, and also feel free to hit me up with any questions :) As a bonus - we have more of these conversations lined up - so let us know what you’d like to hear more of in these interviews 😊

Favorite bit? Gaurav dropping the TTM wisdom. Hilarious! Excited for the upcoming episodes!