Can non-SaaS be PLG? Gitlab goes public, Stripe acquires Recko, and more...

👋 Hey, Ruchin here! Welcome to this week’s edition of the ✨Top of the Lyne✨ newsletter. Each week we publish the hottest news from the beautiful world of product-led growth! (PLG)

The outcome we're shooting for is simple... to get enough folks excited about the product-led world that we so dearly love ❤️

Subscribe to get this newsletter every week👇

---

Into the Twitterverse 🐦🌌

• GitLab IPO = 2 x GitHub acquisition! 🤯

  GitLab went public last week rising to a market cap of over $15B! That makes Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub 3 years ago look like an absolute steal considering GitHub in 2018 was at a larger revenue scale than GitLab is in 2021 SaaS outcomes always surprise!

🦊 GitLab @gitlab

🔔 “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” Look at how far we have been able to go together at GitLab, where we believe #EveryoneCanContribute. $GTLB at @Nasdaq

• “PLG is just for SaaS” 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩

  Some of the most interesting PLG companies in the world are in fact not SaaS companies! PLG as a philosophy has enabled some of the largest fintech and edtech outcomes! Think Toast, Plaid, Robinhood, Byjus…

Kyle Poyar @poyark

My latest newsletter unpacks the Toast IPO and why the hardware + FinTech company is betting on #PLG to fuel its next act. Take a look.

kylepoyar.substack.comInside Toast’s 🔥 IPOWhy the company is betting on PLG to fuel its next act

• Startups build. Giants acquire! 💰

  Friend of the newsletter, Ali Abouletta paints an interesting picture of the power of acquisitions and how it’s fueled Atlassian’s explosion in market cap over the years 📈

Ali Abouelatta @abouelatta_ali

I research and write about how startups got their first 1,000 customers. Here’s how Atlassian bootstrapped a business and eventually set up the most unique “acquisition-led growth” engine the world has ever seen!

• Peeking under the hood of Calendly and Dropbox’s virality 🔥

  Ryan Kaufman (aka growth student) demystifies the growth loops that power giants like Calendly and Dropbox!

Ryan Kaufman🎓 @growth_student

If you’re a SaaS founder, you need to study Product Led Growth How Calendly, Dropbox leveraged product led growth to scale A thread👇👇

---

Growth Stories 🚀

The tactics and strategies that raised Notion to 20M+ users and a $10B valuation 🚀

1. Selling picks and shovels: Built the lego blocks for a
   more productive world 🛠

2. Nurturing community: r/notion now has 150k+ users 🤝

3. Going international: 85%+ of users are outside the US 🌏

   Learn more 👇🏻

Notion: the all-in-one productivity tool

New podcast episode alert! 🚨 Find out how Productboard is becoming the Salesforce for product management 👇🏻 Make sure to follow the channel on Spotify for weekly updates

---

Fundraising, Venture Capital and Exits 🤑

• SaaS is moving eastward 🙌🏻

  PLG has made it easier than ever for SaaS companies to build in the East and sell in the West! Valley companies beware… The Times They Are a-Changin' 🎶

  Stripe announced its acquisition of Recko marking the company’s first acquisition in India. The 2020s are the era of SaaS being built out

Patrick Collison @patrickc

We’re super bullish on the startup ecosystem outside the US. Recko, headquartered in Bangalore, enables automated financial operations, with properly designed, real-time abstractions rather clunky, manual workflows.

Stripe @stripe

Stripe + Recko: https://t.co/e0TBB7wJq4

• Copy.ai ✍🏻 raised an $11M Series A from who’s who of SaaS investors - Sequoia, Craft, Tiger, Elad Gil, you name it. Super excited for one of our favorite marketing tools to blitzscale! ⚡️

Paul Yacoubian @PaulYacoubian

Announcing our $11m Series A round at copy.ai from Wing Ventures, Craft Ventures, Sequoia, Tiger Global, Elad Gil, and many amazing investors! 🙌

copy.aiCopyAI: Create Marketing Copy In SecondsWe have created the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence copywriter that enables you to create marketing copy in seconds!

• The onslaught of PLG IPOs continues! 🤑

  GitLab made its entry into the public markets last week and traded up to $15B, leaving the world of PLG enthused and former GitHub employees enraged (just a guess 🙈 )

Launches, events, and releases

• FigJam has some exciting updates for us 💝

  1. Price cut! Pro plans is now $3 / seat (from $8) and Org plans cost $5 / seat ( from $5) per seat

  2. Plugins and widgets

  3. ‘Open sessions

     

• Is there anything Canva can’t do? 🤩

Melanie Perkins @MelanieCanva

We're incredibly excited to unveil Canva's new Video Suite, bringing the magic of Canva to video editing for anyone, on any device ✨ Congratulations to our epic video team who brought this to life, we can't wait to see what you all create with it! ▶️

bit.lyIntroducing Canva Video SuiteEveryone is consuming video at a massive scale, from content on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, to workplace training tutorials and online fitness classes. But video tools have either been too…

---

Nerding out on PLG 🤓📚

Sam Crowell Richard from OpenView partners lays out guidelines for hiring your ‘Growth Person’

1. Hire a farmer, not a hunter

2. Look for a go-getter

3. Failures matter

4. Avoid pattern-matching

Learn more

Here’s some more reason why you should follow Sam 👇🏻

Absolutely 🔥 meme game

---

---

Some housekeeping…

Is your mailbox trying to keep our content away from you! 💔 What can you do about it? Mark this email as ‘not spam’ 😱 or move it from your promotions to the primary folder 👉🏻 It’s very easy!

Thanks again, and please tell a few friends if you feel like it.