Time = flat circle

The latest from the PLG world - and why your déjà vu probably isn't misplaced

Gayatri Gaidhani

Aishwarya G

, and

Ruchin Kulkarni

Sep 29, 2022

👋 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 ❤️

Take Toplyne for a spin!🎯

Into the Twitterverse 🐦🌌

Time = flat circle. ⃝
Only the 1850s kids will remember the “Is photography art?” debate 🤠
If they were around now, they’d be shaking their heads at history repeating itself in cunning disguise.

Kim-Mai Cutler @kimmaicutler

I don’t think it’s even a debate. We had this argument about photography 150+ years ago. Paintings became more abstract, more and more complex tools flooded society with imagery and birthed new industries. (Come yell at me, art historians.) https://t.co/9dvROWImys

Suhail @Suhail

The main thing I've learned from the is "AI art, art?" debate is that there's a relatively medium-sized market for artisan, hand-crafted goods still. Probably shrinking though.

Over the last few weeks and months, we’ve seen AI-generated art level up consistently and significantly. It really does feel like we’re on the precipice of a seismic shift.

Like this for example. Sure, flying cars would have been great, but Runway comes pretty damn close:

Runway @runwayml

Make any idea real. Just write it. Text to video, coming soon to Runway. Sign up for early access: runwayml.com

Substack’s got your back ✅
Substack knows how to take care of their users. 🥰 After knocking it out of the park with recommendations - which is now the largest driver of growth even for us - there are two more big moves being made soon:
- They just acquired Yem, a startup that helps newsletters grow their userbase with personalized messaging
- Substack “boosts” are timed interventions - discounts, offers, etc. - that prompt free-to-paid conversions on publications.
  Use-case sound familiar?😉

Substack @SubstackInc

On top of this existing network effect, we’ll be driving further growth through an ever-improving list of features.

🔎 The PLG hunt

Deploy code in ~~hours,~~ minutes ft. Zeet⚡

Zeet provides you with the best DevOps setup by supercharging your cloud provider. Focus on shipping products while Zeet takes care of your deployment needs.

Built by developers for developers!🤝

Zeet @Zeet_Co

Today we're excited to announce that we've raised $4.3m in Seed funding led by @sequoia, with participation from angels @amasad @stopman & other eng leaders We're here to make cloud infrastructure easier for everyone, and we're just getting started

forbes.comDevOps Automation Platform Zeet Raises $4.3 MillionZeet, which bills itself as an “integrated DevOps and deployment platform for software developers” has raised $4.3 million in a seed round lead by Sequoia Capital.

Which hot and upcoming PLG company are you most excited about? 👇🏻

Growth Stories 🚀

Heyo, Tray.io👋

Tray empowers non-technical folks to automate their workflows with its low code and user-friendly platform! The takers? Teams across IBM Cloud, Cisco, Vox Media, Lyft, Mixpanel, and Forbes, and a customer base increasing by 400% each year.✨

We connect all the dots that led to the rise and rise of this $600M rocketship!🚀

Top of the Lyne

Heyo, Tray.io!

Do you want more of these deep dives in your inbox? Go on, hit it 👇🏼 Think of something, and the ancient Greeks probably thought of it first. Democracy, geometry, airplanes, alarm clocks. Even cement! They even vaguely thought of the idea of automation first…

6 months ago · 7 likes · Aishwarya G, Ruchin Kulkarni, and Rahul Krishnan

Fundraising, Venture Capital, and Exits 🤑

Wasabi’s spicy $250M Series D 🥵
Wasabi helps companies store data cheaper and faster with integrations for gateways, apps, and third-party platforms.
Looking at you, Amazon S3! 👀

TechCrunch @TechCrunch

Cloud storage startup Wasabi raises $250M to reach unicorn status tcrn.ch/3LLhsom by @Kyle_L_Wiggers

tcrn.chCloud storage startup Wasabi raises $250M to reach unicorn statusWasabi, a cloud storage startup, has raised $250 million in a round of venture and debt funding that values the company at $1.1 billion.

GlossGenius nabs $25M Series B💸
GlossGenius empowers small businesses in the beauty & wellness space to run their entire set of business operations with automation. Round led by Imaginary Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners.🎉
TechCrunch @TechCrunch
GlossGenius triples valuation, raises $25M to give beauty industry's tech stack a makeover tcrn.ch/3dLUtNr by @AnitaRamaswamy
tcrn.chGlossGenius triples valuation, raises $25M to give beauty industry’s tech stack a makeoverNew York-based GlossGenius raised $25 million to build fintech products for independent beauty and wellness professionals
1:30 PM ∙ Sep 27, 2022
24Likes5Retweets
Penpot secures $8M Series A 💰
Penpot is an open-source platform that enables collaboration between developers and designers to enrich design processes.
TechCrunch @TechCrunch
Penpot inks $8M, as signups for its open source spin on Figma jump 5600% after Adobe's $20B acquisition tcrn.ch/3Syv5cM by @ingridlunden
1:35 PM ∙ Sep 27, 2022
153Likes57Retweets

Launches, events, and releases

Build lead lists in seconds ft. Derrick App🚀
Struggle no more with countless tools and cumbersome .csv files.
Derrick helps you collect, clean, and enrich leads directly in Google Sheets.
Product Hunt Feed @phfeed
Derrick App — Build lead lists in seconds on LinkedIn, email and much more
ift.ttDerrick App - Build Lead Lists in seconds, from LinkedIn to GoogleSheet | Product HuntCollect, Clean, and Enrich Leads directly in google sheet ! Bye bye cumbersomecsv, and multiple tools. Do all your Scraping, Enrich, Find Email and Cleaning in one place.
9:04 AM ∙ Sep 28, 2022

Nerding out on PLG 🤓📚

“Product-led” is very much here to stay. Moving beyond Dev tools, the model is increasingly adopted by software across the board.

Making a strong argument for how the PLG motion needs to take on a hybrid product-led sales assist motion, is Bessemer Venture Partners.

In this article, the team at BV Partners makes a strong case for purpose-built GTM tooling for the hybrid motion, with a mention of, you-guessed-it, Toplyne.io 😏

Janelle Teng @NextBigTeng

Traditional GTM tools woefully underserve growth-stage PLG companies. But today’s modern data infrastructure stack has unlocked new enablers for a hybrid PLS motion. In our latest @BessemerVP roadmap, @spdholakia @aschmitt111 & I discuss purpose-built solutions powering PLG🚀👇

Blazing Hot Meme Zone ⚡️

We woke up and chose violence.😌