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Building heavier companies ๐Ÿ‹๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ

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This week in PLG ๐Ÿ—ž

Building heavier companies ๐Ÿ‹๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ

Doubling market share for dummies ๐Ÿฅธ, the return of the prodigal son, a framework for your first Growth hire ๐Ÿ™Œ๐Ÿผ and Jeff Bezos' two cents on navigating a recession ๐Ÿคธ๐Ÿผโ€โ™€๏ธ

Ruchin Kulkarni
,
Gayatri Gaidhani
, and
Aishwarya G
Aug 4, 2022
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Now back to the regular programming ๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿผ

Into the Twitterverseย ๐Ÿฆ๐ŸŒŒ

  • Doubling market shareโ€ฆ for dummies ๐Ÿฅธ

An incredible thread from Megan Kao on how Doordash went from losing $1 on each order ๐Ÿ”ฅ to increasing contribution margin to 20% and doubling market share ๐Ÿ‘€

How did they get there? Relentless execution spanning several quarters, but hereโ€™s the TLDR:

  • Launching more businesses: DoorDash launched 6. Each serves a different need - Marketplace, DashPass, Drive (white-label delivery), Storefront, DoorDash for Work, and DashMart.

    • Improving margins by bundling items from nearby stores, striking deals with top franchises, launching new verticals (Retail, Grocery, Alcohol), batching driver routes, Catering to corporates

    • By not pretending itโ€™s a 9-5 job: Relentless execution was the name of the game. Recalibrate ASAP when things donโ€™t go as planned. Failing fast, testing, learning & iterating.

Twitter avatar for @megankao_
Megan Kao @megankao_
$DASH announces Q2 earnings this week. I spent 2 years at DoorDash in Ops, helping scale market share from 30% to 60% Hereโ€™s what it took to win, and what other Marketplaces can learn ๐Ÿงต
Image
10:18 PM โˆ™ Aug 2, 2022
952Likes113Retweets

  • The prodigal son returns ๐Ÿ˜ณ

Calling all Growth enthusiasts ๐Ÿ“ฃ Subscribe to andrewchen.com today for content that straight up SLAPS ๐Ÿ”ฅ

Twitter avatar for @andrewchen
Andrew Chen ๐ŸŽฎ @andrewchen
I have some personal updates. Moving to LA, a new role at a16z, and more! Here's the post: andrewchen.com/personal-updatโ€ฆ My blog is officially back! Iโ€™m excited to restart my writing here, after a long hiatus.
andrewchen.comPersonal updates: Moving to LA, a new role at a16z, and more! at andrewchen
3:09 PM โˆ™ Aug 1, 2022
712Likes24Retweets
  • Build heavier companies ๐Ÿ‹๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ

    An insightful word of advice about navigating recessions from a young Jeff Bezosโ€ฆ

โ€œClearly there was a lot of voting going on in the boom year of โ€™99โ€”and much less weighing. Weโ€™re a company that wants to be weighed, and over time, we will beโ€”over the long term, all companies are. In the meantime, we have our heads down working to build a heavier and heavier company.โ€ - Jeff Bezos, circa 2000 ๐Ÿ’พ

Twitter avatar for @JonErlichman
Jon Erlichman @JonErlichman
Amazonโ€™s stock fell 80% in 2000. Hereโ€™s what Jeff Bezos told investors:
Image
12:20 PM โˆ™ Jul 29, 2022
7,833Likes1,150Retweets

๐Ÿ”Ž The PLG hunt


Make way for Eppo ๐Ÿฅ

Giving Statsig some tough competition, weโ€™ve got a relatively new entrant emerging from stealth, with a whopping $16 million in Series A! ๐Ÿ™Œ๐Ÿผ

Built by former Data Scientists at AirBnB and Webflow, Eppo is making complex experimentation infrastructure available to companies and product teams of all sizes.

Twitter avatar for @TechCrunch
TechCrunch @TechCrunch
Eppo, a product experimentation platform, raises $19.5M for expansion tcrn.ch/3b8fNek by @Kyle_L_Wiggers
tcrn.chEppo, a product experimentation platform, raises $19.5M for expansion โ€“ TechCrunchEppo, a company developing experimentation infrastructure for testing products, has raised $19.5 million in a venture funding round.
1:00 PM โˆ™ Jun 22, 2022
5Likes1Retweet

Which hot and upcoming PLG company are you most excited about? ๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿป

Leave a comment


Growth Stories ๐Ÿš€

Statsig: A/Bsolutely winning

A cult favorite across product teams at Headspace, Whatnot, and Notion, Stastig is democratizing access to world-class A/B testing infrastructure; the secret sauce that helped Facebook grow to more than 2Bn users๐Ÿ’ฅ

An absolute must-read. Check it out.


Fundraising, Venture Capital, and Exitsย ๐Ÿค‘

  • Sprig finds its wing ๐Ÿ’ธ

    Sprig makes user and product research fast and effortless by gauging customer reactions in real-time.

    Twitter avatar for @Sprig
    Sprig @Sprig
    @TechCrunch broke the news! Meet Sprig Concept & Usability testing to easily test ideas, designs, & prototypes before building Weโ€™re also proud to share that we raised $30M in new funding by @a16z @Accel @firstround @eladgil @figmaventures Read more here
    tcrn.chSprig raises $30M to help companies gauge usersโ€™ reactions to products โ€“ TechCrunchSprig, a startup developing tools to help companies research how users feel about their products and services, has raised $30 million in a venture funding round.
    5:06 PM โˆ™ Aug 2, 2022
    47Likes13Retweets
  • Retoolโ€™s $45M โ€œunconventionalโ€ Series C2 ๐Ÿคธ๐Ÿผโ€โ™€๏ธ

    Would you check out that announcement? ๐Ÿ˜

    Loved by engineering teams at Mercedes-Benz, to media giant, NBC and tech giant, Amazon; this โ€œnew way of building softwareโ€ definitely is eating the world, one industry giant at a time.

Twitter avatar for @retool
Retool @retool
Last year, we raised an unconventional Series C to maximize employee outcomes (over valuation). Today, weโ€™re continuing the approach: we raised $45M for our Series C2 at a $3.2B valuation.
retool.comRetoolโ€™s Series C2 fundraiseWeโ€™re excited to share that weโ€™ve raised $45M at a $3.2B valuation. Our Series C2 is a continuation of our unconventional approach to fundraisingโ€”instead of raising the maximum amount at the highest valuation, we raise small rounds at lower valuations, which minimizes dilution and preserves upside
1:05 PM โˆ™ Jul 28, 2022
198Likes27Retweets
  • Datadog bites Seekret ๐Ÿฆฎ

    Datadog acquires Seekret, a highly innovative API observability company to enhance deeper governance capabilities. ๐Ÿค

    Twitter avatar for @MarketCurrents
    Breaking News @MarketCurrents
    $DDOG - Datadog acquires Seekret for making API observability accessible
    seekingalpha.comDatadog acquires Seekret for making API observability accessibleDatadog (DDOG) acquired Seekret, a highly innovative API observability company for extending its unified platform to deliver deeper API observability, governance and automation across...
    11:19 AM โˆ™ Aug 4, 2022
  • A big Deel indeed ๐Ÿ’ฅ

    Deel acquires Legalpad to further their mission to unlock the power of a truly, global workforce. ๐ŸŒŽ

    Twitter avatar for @Bouazizalex
    Alex Bouaziz @Bouazizalex
    Excited to welcome the @LegalpadIO team to @deel ๐Ÿ™Œ ๐ŸŽ‰ This will make connecting employers to global talent easier than ever. Together we can break down immigration hiring barriers to get more people working for the best companies in the world ๐ŸŒdeel.com/blog/legalpad-โ€ฆ
    deel.comWeโ€™re acquiring Legalpad to break down immigration barriers to global hiringWeโ€™re thrilled to announce our acquisition of Legalpad, a company dedicated to simplifying the work-visa process for founders, companies, and their workforce.
    12:05 PM โˆ™ Aug 4, 2022
    25Likes6Retweets

Launches, events, and releases

  • Managing an online community is now super hard easy ft. Threado ๐Ÿš€


    A pioneer in the community-ops category, Threado helps you unlock the 100x power of community by helping you build, activate members, and automate workflows.

Twitter avatar for @prao24
Pramod Rao @prao24
๐Ÿšจ Launch Alert ๐Ÿšจ We are stoked to announce @ThreadoHQ is LIVE now on @ProductHunt ๐Ÿš€
Image
7:03 AM โˆ™ Aug 2, 2022
159Likes41Retweets


Nerding out on PLG ๐Ÿค“
๐Ÿ“š

You never forget your firstโ€ฆ

Growth hire. (what did you think, ha?)

Adam Fishman in his latest two-part series demystifies the age-old question of โ€œWhen to bring in your first growth hire?โ€

Does your company need a Painter, an Architect, or a Surgeon? Let Adam answer this one for you!

You donโ€™t want to miss this one. ๐Ÿคฏ Check it out here.

Blazing Hot Meme Zone โšก๏ธ

Just out here, spitting facts ๐Ÿ’ฆ

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