Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

How Snyk built a product-led growth juggernaut | Ben Williams (VP of Product at Snyk)

November 6, 2022

AI Summary

5 min read

Snyk disrupted developer security by starting with a frictionless CLI tool for scanning Node.js open-source dependencies, targeting a narrow community via conferences and hooks like "Do you have known vulnerabilities in your apps?" This developer-first approach drove early adoption through freemium access and loops like automated GitHub fix pull requests, evolving from pure PLG to product-led sales after self-serve monetization stalled without enterprise governance features.

Early Growth Loops
Snyk layered company-generated content loops for acquisition and retention: GitHub PRs that fix vulnerabilities, brand the company, and drive signups; Snyk Advisor pages for programmatic SEO on package health (security, maintenance scores); and free security education lessons. Intra-company virality via invites and referrals amplified these. Expansion beyond Node.js required proving depth in one ecosystem first, avoiding premature breadth that dilutes product-market fit.

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What you'll learn

1 `* (04:47) **Guest intro & Ben's background**`
2 `* (07:26) **Snyk overview & scale**`
3 `* (09:29) **Snyk origins: First 100 users**`
4 `* (20:27) **Early PLG loops & tactics**`
5 `* (27:06) **Self-serve pivot to product-led sales**`
6 `* (35:22) **Growth team launch & structure**`
7 `* (46:34) **Growth principles: People/process/strategy/data**`

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Ben Williams is VP of Product at Snyk, an industry-leading security platform for developers, last valued at $8.5b. He’s also a product and growth advisor with over 20 years of experience building and scaling high-performing product and growth teams. Through product-led growth, product-led sales, and community, Snyk rapidly scaled and won over the lucrative developer audience. In today’s episode, Ben shares the successful growth levers that helped Snyk get started, all of the details of how Snyk has structured their growth, product, and marketing teams and set them up for success in terms of cross-collaboration—and also how their initial plan for self-serve monetization fell flat. We go into Ben’s many useful tips for product-led growth, including his thoughts on free vs. paid versions, trials, and how to build amazing growth teams.

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Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-snyk-built-a-product-led-growth

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Where to find Ben Williams:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/semanticben

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/semanticben/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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