Skip to content

Commit e137ef0

Browse files
mattmakaimattmakai
committed
add new notes to dev-led sales talk
1 parent 3f25106 commit e137ef0

File tree

1 file changed

+45
-12
lines changed

1 file changed

+45
-12
lines changed

‎content/posts/190626-dev-led-sales-startups.markdown‎

Lines changed: 45 additions & 12 deletions
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -80,19 +80,30 @@ Rinse and repeat until the IPO and beyond.
8080
<div class="row talk"><div class="c6">
8181
<img src="/img/190626-dev-led-sales/07-early-stage.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Early stage example dev-led sales companies.">
8282
</div><div class="c6"><p>
83-
It seems like there are examples of this success story across many
84-
early-stage and mid-stage companies.
83+
There are examples of this developer-led marketing and sales success
84+
story across many early-stage and mid-stage companies.
8585

86-
<a href="https://rollbar.com/">Rollbar</a> and
86+
For example, <a href="https://rollbar.com/">Rollbar</a> and
8787
<a href="https://www.datadoghq.com/">Datadog</a> are doing well by
88-
focusing on developer adoption for their monitoring and analytics tools.
88+
focusing on developer adoption with great technical content for their
89+
monitoring and analytics tools.
8990
</p><p>
9091
<a href="https://www.getpostman.com/">Postman</a> recently raised
9192
<a href="https://pitchbook.com/newsletter/postman-picks-up-50m-series-b">$50 million</a>
9293
in a Series B round of venture capital to expand their API testing
9394
developer tools. Postman was founded in large part because the original
9495
tool was virally adopted by developers building APIs and
9596
<a href="/microservices.html">microservices</a>.
97+
</p><p>
98+
<a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/">DigitalOcean</a>'s extensive
99+
<a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials">community-written tutorials</a>
100+
have endeared them to developers and has allowed them to compete
101+
in a world where providing cloud infrastructure pits you against AWS,
102+
Google and Microsoft.
103+
</p><p>
104+
Citus Data's developer-focused <a href="/databases.html">database</a>
105+
content and <a href="/postgresql.html">PostgreSQL</a> offerings led them to
106+
<a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2019/01/24/microsoft-acquires-citus-data-re-affirming-its-commitment-to-open-source-and-accelerating-azure-postgresql-performance-and-scale/">a successful exit via Microsofta acquisition</a>.
96107
</p>
97108
</div></div>
98109

@@ -104,7 +115,7 @@ such as publicly-traded <a href="https://www.okta.com/">Okta</a>
104115
<a href="https://www.pluralsight.com/">Pluralsight</a>,
105116
<a href="https://slack.com/">Slack</a>
106117
and
107-
<a href="https://www.twilio.com/">Twilio</a>. Still private
118+
<a href="https://www.twilio.com/">Twilio</a>. Still-private
108119
<a href="https://stripe.com/">Stripe</a> recently raised more
109120
venture capital money at a $22 billion valuation which is more than
110121
those four public companies.
@@ -130,16 +141,16 @@ required to execute on the vision?
130141
<img src="/img/190626-dev-led-sales/10-devrel-skills.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Developer relations skillset.">
131142
</div><div class="c6"><p>
132143
You, as the founder, should serve as the chief evangelist for your
133-
product during the early stages of your company, and arguably that role
134-
never stops.
144+
product during the early stages of your company. That role
145+
never stops regardless of how large and successful you become.
135146
<p>
136147
But your time is split in a hundred different ways so eventually you
137148
need to hire someone with a nuanced understanding of how to
138149
<strong>appropriately</strong> market your company to developers.
139150
Hiring the wrong person for the job is going to be the equivalent of
140151
adding a
141152
<a href="http://wiki.c2.com/?NetNegativeProducingProgrammer">net negative producing programmer</a>
142-
to your development team at a critical stage of growth. The result
153+
to your development team at a critical stage of growth. A poor result
143154
could sink your entire company.
144155
</p>
145156
<p>
@@ -260,11 +271,14 @@ tried-and-true traditional sales motion?
260271
<img src="/img/190626-dev-led-sales/19-solving-problem.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Solving a worthwhile developer problem.">
261272
</div><div class="c6"><p>
262273
First, you need to be solving an actual problem that developers recognize
263-
is an issue for them that they themselves would not want to solve. This is
274+
is an issue for them that they themselves would not want to solve. Solving
275+
a meaty technical problem with an easy-to-use solution is
264276
a high bar that non-technical founders often take for granted when
265277
pitching their product.
266278
</p><p>
267-
Is the problem your product solves... actually a problem worth solving?
279+
Is the problem your product solves... actually a problem worth solving
280+
for developers? It must be if you want to be successful with a developer-led
281+
sales model.
268282
</p>
269283
</div></div>
270284

@@ -470,14 +484,33 @@ sauce on smaller, regional conferences then expand from there.
470484
<div class="row talk"><div class="c6">
471485
<img src="/img/190626-dev-led-sales/31-meetups.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Developers at meetups.">
472486
</div><div class="c6"><p>
473-
...
487+
Tech meetups are good for brand awareness among primarily less experienced
488+
developers. While there are some niche, senior developer and tech
489+
lead-focused meetups, most of the content at these events is aimed at
490+
less experienced folks.
474491
</p>
475492
</div></div>
476493

477494
<div class="row talk"><div class="c6">
478495
<img src="/img/190626-dev-led-sales/32-hackathons.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Developers at hackathons.">
479496
</div><div class="c6"><p>
480-
...
497+
Professional hackathons have undergone a transition over the past several
498+
years. Broadly speaking there is less excitement among developers to spend
499+
a long sleep-deprived weekend working on a project with an unclear payoff.
500+
I could be projecting my own feelings on this one but it appears that the
501+
majority of developers in 2019 would prefer to work on their projects outside
502+
the pressure of an arbitrary forced deadline. Hackathons can be still useful
503+
for getting a focused product shipped in a weekend but there seems to be less
504+
excitement around them than a few years ago.
505+
</p><p>
506+
College hacakthons, like Hack MIT, MHacks and Hoo Hacks, on the other hand,
507+
are going stronger than ever. There are always new classes of students who
508+
are excited to code their ideas. However, you are playing the long game with
509+
college hackathons and assuming that a few years down the road a student
510+
who learned your APIs will pick it back up to solve a problem at work. For
511+
most early startups, college hackathons won't make a ton of sense unless
512+
you want to get quick immediate feedback from junior programmers about your
513+
product's developer experience.
481514
</p>
482515
</div></div>
483516

0 commit comments

Comments
 (0)