I caught up with Josh Mendelsohn, Former VP Marketing at Privy, to get his reaction to a few questions focused on product led growth. In his own words, Josh is a marketing leader who likes to think strategically while getting hands-on with product, content, and performance marketing for product led growth companies.
In the interview, Josh weighs in on things like what it means to be product led, his favorite tools to help enable product led growth, and the benefits that come along with being a product led company.
SaaS Expert Interview: Josh Mendelson
Q: What do you love about the work you do?
A: I love helping small businesses grow, bringing them world-class marketing technology with the service they need at a price point that works for them.
Q: What is the biggest benefit Privy provides to its customers?
A: The most valuable asset that any business has is its email list. Privy’s platform is the best way to grow your email list. It’s simple to use, free to start and has a ton of advanced options for more sophisticated users.
Q: What does it mean to be product led?
A: The term product led is a little bit of a misnomer. Most people that being “product led” means that a product is naturally viral and does the heavy lifting of acquisition, conversion, and upsell. While that can be true, product-led is more about delivering a great experience with your product and finding natural ways within the product experience to drive your key business metrics. That could be demos and sales calls, product adoption, expansion revenue, and more.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges that come with being a product led company?
A: Moving to a product led model requires a little bit of a leap of faith. You need to have the utmost confidence that your product delivers a great experience. And you need to have the patience to let new users experience the product before you start selling them on paying for it. If you’re too aggressive, you can easily destroy the value you’re trying to deliver and turn potential customers away.
Q: What are some of the greatest benefits of being a product led company?
A: Product led companies can scale very effectively because you’re moving people through the funnel in a way that doesn’t require human intervention. And it can help create alignment because every team (e.g., product, engineering, sales, marketing) is invested in delivering a great experience and driving the same key business metrics.
Q: What are your 3 favorite tools or services that enable your product led strategy?
A: AppCues, HubSpot, Heap
