Crossing the Enterprise Chasm

WorkOS CEO, Michael Grinich, and former Asana CRO Oliver Jay discuss insights on the benefits of targeting outbound to existing customers, international expansion, and the challenges and strategies of scaling from product-led growth (PLG) to enterprise sales while avoiding the PLG trap. 

WorkOS CEO, Michael Grinich, and Augment Code Acting CMO, Francois Dufour, discuss the enterprise shift during Francois’ time at Twilio, B2B marketing that is actually helpful for developers, and early signals that indicate the right time to build for the enterprise.

WorkOS CEO, Michael Grinich, and Sanity CEO, Magnus Hillestad, discuss the evolution of Sanity, starting with its origins as a PLG company focused on developer advocacy and open source, and transitioning to a product-led sales strategy that better serves enterprise customers.

WorkOS CEO, Michael Grinich, and Timescale CEO, Ajay Kulkarni, dive into Timescale’s own journey to becoming Enterprise Ready. They discuss the limitations of relying solely on PLG and why you must layer in sales, the importance of saying no to certain customer requests, and the risks of relying too heavily on past relevant experiences when hiring.

WorkOS CEO, Michael Grinich, and Datadog CMO, Sarah Varni, discuss learnings from Twilio’s growth from $400 million to $2.8 billion in revenue, the importance of developer evangelism as a function, and the nuances of marketing a broad platform like Datadog.

In this episode, WorkOS CEO, Michael Grinich, and Partner at Calyx Consulting and former director of platform marketing at Slack, Ceci Stallsmith, discuss the tactics of building successful ecosystems, the importance of founder-led brand experience, and the seven principles of developer GTM.  Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/ArxOC9JG6W4

In this episode, WorkOS CEO, Michael Grinich, and former CEO at Vimeo, Adam Gross, discuss the evolution of platform marketing and what it means to balance between strategic and emotive elements in building successful products. They also dive into the distinct challenges and strategies involved in marketing developer-focused platforms.  Check out the talk that Adam mentions in the episode here: ht...

In this episode, WorkOS CEO, Michael Grinich, and Director of Developer Relations at Pinecone, Bear Douglas, explore the definition and importance of DevRel including its interplay with product and marketing. They also dive into the metrics for success, the role of community, and advice for startups considering their first DevRel hire. Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/c83NYZ2eUj4

In this episode, WorkOS CEO, Michael Grinich, and Co-founder of Phenomenal Ventures and former Head of Marketing at Plaid, Helen Min, discuss the importance of maintaining developer trust, hiring smart generalists as first marketing hires, and maintaining a robust relationship between marketing and sales. For additional insights, be sure to check out Helen’s blog here: https://helenmin.com/blog

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and co-founder of HyperGrowth Partners Martin Gontovnikas discuss tactics around building community engagement and how to stand out from the crowd. Watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SqYzDD7JZ4

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and former Head of Revenue at Plaid Paul Williamson discuss the power of an intense focus on the success of the Developer, the importance of a seamless end-user experience, and what candidate profile to look for when building out your go-to-market team. 

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and Atlassian Chief Revenue Officer Cameron Deatsch discuss Atlassian’s unconventional approach to sales, focusing on self-serve sales to successfully scale, and Atlassian’s transition into the enterprise market. 

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and LaunchDarkly Co-Founder and Executive Chair Edith Harbaugh discuss the importance of personal interaction when selling new technology, early founder-led sales, and the long road to success. 

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and Cloudflare Co-Founder, President and COO Michelle Zatlyn discuss how the early constraint in building easy-to-integrate and financially viable product for small businesses became an asset when selling to enterprise, and how important the sharing of future roadmap with customers is to staying relevant and warding off the competition.

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and Cockroach Labs Co-Founder and CEO Spencer Kimball discuss the importance of execution over ideas, the need for exploratory sales in early GTM teams, and leveraging technical content to target developers. 

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and HashiCorp Co-Founder and CTO Armon Dadgar discuss open core strategy, the challenges surrounding cloud-based product adoption for traditional enterprise, and the evolution of enterprise commercial structure.

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and former CRO at Segment Joe Morrissey discuss how to layer in an outbound sales motion on-top of a self-serve motion for developer products, the advantages of leveraging an early sales team in product development, and usage-based vs. pre-bought consumption pricing.

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and Flatfile CEO and David Boskovic discuss how to foster the developer champion, the critical role they play in winning enterprise deals and how building “hero features” changes the enterprise buying cycle.

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and former GitHub VP of Worldwide Sales Paul St. John cover how the GitHub sales team lead the open source software to enterprise sales. They also talk about how social coding changes workflows for the better, and how a sales team can be instrumental in driving product market fit. 

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and former Stripe COO and and author of 'Scaling People ' Claire Hughes Johnson cover how the early Stripe team navigated explosive growth, both from a product and people perspective. 

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and Drata's CTO Daniel Marashlian talk about security, compliance, and startup growth.

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and Vinay Hiremath who's the Co-Founder, CTO, and VP of People at Loom, talk about Loom's journey. They discuss how it started out as a tool that empowered individuals and small teams to being a part of large companies' cultures. They go over what went well and what could've been done differently.

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and PlanetScale's CEO Sam Lambert discuss how to build an exceptional Developer experience that enables Software Development teams of all sizes. And how to do it in a way that a developer who is at the absolute bleeding edge, hottest startup can use the same technologies as someone who is at a hundred-year-old company that is revolutionizing their techno...

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and Netlify Co-founder, chief strategy, and creative officer Chris Bach cover balancing between building for developers and building for Enterprise customers.

In this episode, WorkOS CEO Michael Grinich and Notion CRO Olivia Nottebohm cover how businesses can create engines of community-led growth for their products. They also talk about customer advisory boards, cultivating an ecosystem, and customer communication.