Hi guys! Welcome to another week of gisting about product-led growth.

In my last post about #PLG, I gave you an assignment. Ok, moment of truth – did you do it? Lol, ok. I’ll give you my own answer.

I also have a surprise for you at the end.

Let's take the example of Calendly since it’s a generic enough tool that cuts across most job functions and industries and has a Nigerian founder 😁. I mean, everyone books meetings, don’t they? Awesome!

What's the product value to users?

Calendly is a scheduling tool that helps you organise your calendar, schedule and manage and monetise meetings and events. I first heard about Calendly circa 2017 when a recruiter sent me a link to schedule a meeting. I thought it was such a great idea. Being a Microsoft baby, I was used to Outlook and Exchange and the ability to share calendars within organisations but this was next level. I used Calendly a lot after my first interaction with the product. Why? I found immediate value in their offering. It solved a specific need and it was quite easy to use and FREE! I didn’t have to jump through hoops to register or get access to the value the product offered.

One thing stood out to me – they focused on solving one main problem and they were clear with their use cases. Then they extended their offerings as their user base grew and they learned more from user behaviour.

What's their business model?

The product is offered as a freemium service where users get a base version of the product for free with the option of opting to pay a subscription fee to access more specialised features. Calendly started in 2013 and was originally bootstrapped employing an ‘upside-down’ funnel according to the founder. This approach allowed them to focus on their early adopters, learn from them as they eventually became advocates of the product. Bootstrapping also meant that they ran lean operations which helped them keep low overheads. Calendly is now valued at over $3 billion with revenue north of $85 million and 10 million customers in 2022.

What is peculiar to the market they serve?

Calendly was developed and launched in US. They targeted users they had identified to have similar problems with meeting schedules such as sales people and recruiters. They also incorporated both B2C and B2B models. Today, anyone and everyone looking to schedule a meeting or office hours and similar events use Calendly or other similar products including the company’s top competition such as YoucanBookme. The incumbents such as Microsoft have also had to play catch to avoid losing marketshare.

What’s unique about their team?

There’s a level of passion and belief in an idea that makes a founder quit their job, cash in their 401k, invest all their cash savings and wealth of experience in that idea. Are you familiar with ‘dealer owned; dealer operated’ business models of petrol stations in Nigeria? That’s what came to mind when I thought about Calendly. The founder experienced the problem he was trying to solve which was clear VOC. He then employed an experienced software development company to build the first version of the product. This combination of a true focus on user experience and an experienced team, I would say are major contributors to Calendly’s success.

What's their competitive edge?

Fun fact: Did you know that the product wasn’t originally planned with a freemium model in mind? The founder mentioned in an interview with Forbes that he had run out of money when they got to the point of adding payments into products.

It's interesting how an accidental decision was the core driver for the product achieving product-market fit and growth.

Calendly had two main things working for it

1. It solved a real problem. Tope Awotona had worked in tech sales and experienced first-hand the issues related to scheduling meetings. He also went beyond his own experience and validated his hypothesis with his colleagues.
2. It was free to use which allowed early adopters explore the product without making an initial buy commitment.
3. It was easy to use and available to anyone and everyone.

Bonus – Beyond the fact that it was free to use, the company built brand recognition by adding a “powered by Calendly” stamp to every meeting notification which helped them drive organic marketing.

Learnings from the product

1. PLG can be very successful when paired with marketing to help drive awareness and adoption.
2. Solving real problems will always be king. Ensuring that VOC is properly collected and documented is key.
3. Finding innovative ways to drive organic awareness and adoption reduces marketing expense and supports bootstrapping.

We'll be discussing how to scale B2B growth in Africa using PLG approach this Thursday at 6pm WAT. Join us as it promises to be quite insightful and interesting.

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