Understanding early-stage PLG with Laura Schaffer (VP Growth, Amplitude)

The 101 freeway between San Jose and San Francisco is lined with massive billboards for growth-stage startups singing their own praises. Zipping past at 70 mph, it’s not always clear what services/products are even on offer, but sales-led growth relies on generating leads and raising awareness.

Early-stage startups cannot afford traditional sales and marketing, which is where product-led growth (PLG) comes in.

Instead of creating slick collateral and hiring aggressive go-getters, PLG presents the product itself as the primary driver for customer acquisition, expansion and conversion.

"It's an end-user-based revenue motion," said Laura Shaffer, VP of Growth at analytics platform Amplitude. "So you're trying to ultimately drive revenue growth by focusing on the end user."

I invited her on the podcast to talk about how founding teams with limited resources can build a robust PLG framework that gathers actionable data and drives engagement.

“If you think of payment, it's just a kind of friction. Just like completing a signup is friction. Just like learning a new product is friction," said Laura. "Payment and pricing and charging is just another friction."

Episode breakdown

Introduction to Laura Schaffer and her background in sales and growth
Defining product-led growth (PLG) as an end-user based revenue motion
Key components of PLG: acquisition, monetization, retention
Initial steps for startups adopting PLG with limited resources
“There are bad, high-friction questions, and then there's good questions.”
Identifying and prioritizing target personas based on user engagement
Minimizing bias by focusing on user problems and using quantitative data
Strategies for moving from freemium to paid versions based on engagement signals
Using free tools like Google Drive and Amplitude for tracking and data collection
Techniques for embedding personas into organizational culture for alignment
Avoiding vanity metrics and ensuring engagement metrics are linked to value
Laura’s advice on maintaining focus and prioritizing effectively for growthSubscribe now