13: Kyle Poyar, Operating Partner @ Openview
02/18/23 • 53 min
Kyle Poyar joined me on the ProductTea to talk about anything that makes businesses and VCs tick.
I love this conversation for the simplicity of how Investors make decisions and what the future of our industry might very well look like. You should leave this podcast once you listened to it with some great insights into what makes product-led growth companies run differently than their competitors.
00:00 Kyle and Leah’s introduction
04:00 Using LinkedIn to validate concepts and Ideas
07:20 The balancing act of what we say and what we mean in different channels
08:45 Consistency on LinkedIn and challenging established things like the NPS
13:00 Kyle’s “Growth Unhinged” posts as a well of knowledge of the past 6 years in PLG
15:30 The business model of “Openview”, Investment profile, and typical companies to invest in
18:45 How to determine whether a company has reached product-market fit
22:15 How to “show” product-market fit with non-obvious numbers
26:20 How long it takes to “proof” a certain motion, typical Lifetime Value numbers
29:30 The data Gap of tracking emails instead of people
34:57 Investing into companies that have no revenue to show for
39:00 Pre-Seed investment methods
43:33 Do you know how the business you work in, works?
45:00 Putting a price on Customer Success and the increasing business literacy around it
47:30 When risk profiles are driven by greed and how PLG runs on a “skeleton crew”
50:15 Where PLG companies spend more money than others
51:50 Product-Led Sales and the maturity it’s in.
Connect!
Kyles LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/
Kyle’s Substack:
Connect with Leah: https://linktr.ee/leahtharin
Kyle Poyar joined me on the ProductTea to talk about anything that makes businesses and VCs tick.
I love this conversation for the simplicity of how Investors make decisions and what the future of our industry might very well look like. You should leave this podcast once you listened to it with some great insights into what makes product-led growth companies run differently than their competitors.
00:00 Kyle and Leah’s introduction
04:00 Using LinkedIn to validate concepts and Ideas
07:20 The balancing act of what we say and what we mean in different channels
08:45 Consistency on LinkedIn and challenging established things like the NPS
13:00 Kyle’s “Growth Unhinged” posts as a well of knowledge of the past 6 years in PLG
15:30 The business model of “Openview”, Investment profile, and typical companies to invest in
18:45 How to determine whether a company has reached product-market fit
22:15 How to “show” product-market fit with non-obvious numbers
26:20 How long it takes to “proof” a certain motion, typical Lifetime Value numbers
29:30 The data Gap of tracking emails instead of people
34:57 Investing into companies that have no revenue to show for
39:00 Pre-Seed investment methods
43:33 Do you know how the business you work in, works?
45:00 Putting a price on Customer Success and the increasing business literacy around it
47:30 When risk profiles are driven by greed and how PLG runs on a “skeleton crew”
50:15 Where PLG companies spend more money than others
51:50 Product-Led Sales and the maturity it’s in.
Connect!
Kyles LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/
Kyle’s Substack:
Connect with Leah: https://linktr.ee/leahtharin
Previous Episode
12: Wes Bush, CEO of Productled
Wes Bush joined me to talk about everything product-led. Wes specialized in advising companies on product-led growth through his courses and successful book. He’s a fun, authentic person to be around and I loved every minute we spent together.
His no-bullshit approach to product-led growth is exactly why I started following him closer 5 months ago and have not regretted it in the slightest. There are a ton of very specific learnings in this talk condensed to one hour.
00:00 Wes and Leah's introductions
04:00 On the fundamentals of Product-led Growth and how its fundamentals are still basic business
07:10 How consulting differs from how we represent PLG on LinkedIn and other spaces.
09:40 How to get everyone on the same page in company consulting. Start at the very basics.
10:55 How the term Product-led Growth is misleading and misunderstood.
12:30 Product-Led Growth is not a binary, it’s a spectrum
16:30 Coaching around PLG and how it is a tricky business to get buy-in from the entire organization
19:15 Trying to convince people vs. doing team building around product-led growth
21:50 ProductLed the company and how the product changed
25:00 Chairs and ICPs
28:00 Empowering anybody to do anything.
30:40 How a product-led growth approach transcends everything
33:45 The ideal customer for Productled
39:35 Product-led Sales and whether it’s too early yet
44:50 The mixup with Customer Success and the ensuing bloodbath
48:30 What happens if Wes goes missing? How would his friends describe him to the police?
50:00 If Wes had a time machine, what company would he have joined?
53:15 Trends Wes believes in
Next Episode
14: Ben Williams, The Product-Led Geek, PLG Advisor
Season 2 is all about product-led growth! Ben Williams is a friend and an amazingly structured advisor in the product-led growth space. If you have ever wondered specifically how we structure our work, either as someone that looks into advising themselves or as a company that wonders how this episode is for you.
Timestamps:
0:00 Ben’s introduction and relevance to Leah
02:20 What do people get wrong about Ben?
03:20 Ben’s model as a consultant in the product-led growth space
04:50 Going full-time as an advisor, how to make the scary jump
08:40 The Growth model Rubick’s cube: How to explain growth motions
13:28 PLG is easy in principle but hard in practice to pivot towards
15:25 What steps do we always take at the beginning of PLG?
18:15 Companies need to be intentional about their data and the structure around it
21:41 Centralizing data competency vs. data organization
25:05 The deal with engagement metrics and why should use them more
27:50 Why engagement is not measured properly and the effects of it
33:40 Breadth of engagement vs depth of engagement
37:03 Engagement is not only a function of your customer but of your employees as well
39:00 How to engage with Ben
If you like this episode you’ll love
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