Companies
Classic SaaS
Classic SaaS
HubSpot
How HubSpot went to market: inbound content, inside sales, an agency channel, then freemium and a move off search. Sourced to its filings.
Category creationInbound contentSales-ledPartner channelRead the recordClassic SaaS
Salesforce
How Salesforce went to market: The End of Software, direct sales by segment, AppExchange, Dreamforce, then Agentforce. Sourced to its SEC filings.
Category creationBrand narrativeSales-ledPartner channelRead the recordClassic SaaS
Atlassian
How Atlassian went to market: low prices sold online, $10 starter licenses, Marketplace partners, free cloud, then enterprise sales. Sourced to SEC filings.
Product-ledLand and expandPartner channelSales-assistRead the recordClassic SaaS
Gong
How Gong went to market: sales-led deals, a category renamed for the CRO, research from call data, and multi-product expansion. Sourced to Gong and its leaders.
Sales-ledInbound contentCategory creationLand and expandRead the record
Product-led
Product-led
Zoom
How Zoom went to market: a free host plan, the meeting-invite loop, sales routed by deal size, then enterprise and AI. Sourced to its S-1 and 10-Ks.
Product-ledViral loopSales-assistLand and expandRead the recordProduct-led
Slack
How Slack went to market: a free plan for teams, bottom-up spread, sales working the champions, Slack Connect, then Salesforce. Sourced to its S-1 and 10-Ks.
Product-ledViral loopSales-assistLand and expandRead the recordProduct-led
Figma
How Figma went to market: the shared file link, paid team plans, early direct sales, then more roles, admin seats and AI credits. Sourced to its S-1 and 10-K.
Viral loopProduct-ledSales-assistCommunityRead the recordProduct-led
Dropbox
How Dropbox went to market: a free plan, a share loop, two-sided storage referrals, and self-serve team upgrades. Sourced to its S-1 and 10-Ks.
Product-ledReferral programViral loopLand and expandRead the recordProduct-led
Notion
How Notion went to market: free personal use, templates and community, then B2C2B team growth, bundled AI and enterprise sales. Sourced to Notion and its team.
Product-ledCommunityLand and expandSales-assistRead the recordProduct-led
Shopify
How Shopify went to market: self-serve stores, a partner and app ecosystem, payments that scale with merchant sales, then Plus and enterprise sales.
Product-ledPartner channelUsage pricingPaid acquisitionRead the recordProduct-led
Canva
How Canva went to market: search pages into a free editor, word of mouth, 100 languages, team plans, free schools, enterprise. Sourced to Canva and founders.
Product-ledInbound contentCommunityViral loopRead the recordProduct-led
Asana
How Asana went to market: a free team tier, guest invites, sales-assisted expansion, a top-down enterprise shift, then AI credits. Sourced to SEC filings.
Product-ledViral loopSales-assistLand and expandRead the recordProduct-led
monday.com
How monday.com went to market: payback-gated ads into a self-serve trial, sales and partners from 2018, more products, then AI credits. Sourced to its filings.
Product-ledPaid acquisitionSales-assistLand and expandRead the record
Developer and enterprise
Developer and enterprise
Twilio
How Twilio went to market: developers first, pay-as-you-go pricing, sales after success, then acquisitions and three motions. Sourced to its S-1 and 10-Ks.
Developer-ledProduct-ledUsage pricingSales-assistRead the recordDeveloper and enterprise
Datadog
How Datadog went to market: a free trial for engineers, inside and enterprise sales, usage pricing, and multi-product expansion. Sourced to SEC filings.
Developer-ledProduct-ledLand and expandSales-assistRead the recordDeveloper and enterprise
Snowflake
How Snowflake went to market: enterprise sales, consumption pricing on capacity contracts, land and expand, then marketplaces and AI. Sourced to SEC filings.
Sales-ledUsage pricingLand and expandCategory creationRead the recordDeveloper and enterprise
Stripe
How Stripe went to market: a self-serve API for developers, platforms reselling it through Connect, then enterprise sales. Sourced to Stripe and its founders.
Developer-ledProduct-ledUsage pricingLand and expandRead the recordDeveloper and enterprise
MongoDB
How MongoDB went to market: a free developer database, enterprise sales on top, then Atlas usage pricing and the hyperscalers. Sourced to its S-1 and 10-Ks.
Open sourceDeveloper-ledSales-ledLand and expandRead the recordDeveloper and enterprise
GitLab
How GitLab went to market: open source, open core tiers set by buyer, developer adoption, enterprise sales, then AI credits. Sourced to its S-1 and 10-Ks.
Open sourceCommunityDeveloper-ledSales-ledRead the recordDeveloper and enterprise
Cloudflare
How Cloudflare went to market: a free plan with jobs beyond conversion, Birthday Week giveaways, enterprise sales, then Workers and agents. Sourced to filings.
Product-ledBrand narrativeSales-ledLand and expandRead the recordDeveloper and enterprise
Vercel
How Vercel went to market: open-source Next.js, Git-linked deploys, a free tier, then enterprise sales, partners, and v0. Sourced to its blog and founder.
Developer-ledOpen sourceProduct-ledOwned eventsRead the record
Security
Security
CrowdStrike
How CrowdStrike went to market: intelligence and incident response first, one agent with add-on modules, partners, then Falcon Flex. Sourced to SEC filings.
Brand narrativeSales-ledLand and expandPartner channelRead the recordSecurity
Okta
How Okta went to market: enterprise sales of cloud SSO, pre-built integrations, land and expand, Auth0 for developers, then AI agents. Sourced to SEC filings.
Sales-ledCategory creationLand and expandPartner channelRead the recordSecurity
Wiz
How Wiz went to market: top-down sales to enterprise CISOs, agentless proofs of value, a research-led brand, and cloud marketplaces. Sourced to Wiz and filings.
Sales-ledCloud marketplacePartner channelRead the recordSecurity
Zscaler
How Zscaler went to market: cloud security sold through carriers and integrators, land and expand, the zero trust rebrand, then Z-Flex. Sourced to SEC filings.
Sales-ledPartner channelLand and expandBrand narrativeRead the record
AI-native
AI-native
Cursor
How Cursor went to market: product-led word of mouth among developers, then consumption pricing and enterprise sales. Sourced to its blog and founders.
Product-ledDeveloper-ledUsage pricingSales-assistRead the recordAI-native
Anthropic
How Anthropic went to market: a developer API, three cloud marketplaces, Claude Code in paid plans, enterprise seats and funded partners. Sourced to its posts.
Developer-ledBrand narrativeCloud marketplaceProduct-ledRead the recordAI-native
Replit
How Replit went to market: a free learn-to-code platform, then an Agent pivot for non-engineers, effort-based pricing, and bottom-up enterprise sales.
Product-ledEducationCommunityUsage pricingRead the recordAI-native
Lovable
How Lovable went to market: an open-source proof, a free AI app builder, building in public, community hackathons, then credits, partners, and enterprise sales.
Open sourceProduct-ledBrand narrativeUsage pricingRead the recordAI-native
OpenAI
How OpenAI went to market: a developer API, free ChatGPT with paid tiers, self-serve and sales-led business plans, then multi-cloud. Sourced to its own posts.
Developer-ledProduct-ledSales-assistCloud marketplaceRead the record