2/ EVERY B2B company ends up building a sales team –– even if they started bottom-up. This includes @Atlassian, @SlackHQ, @Dropbox, @segment, @twilio, etc.
3/ Most companies kick-started growth with founder-led sales, e.g. “In the early days of Figma, we talked with practically every designer we knew … I cold emailed / found introductions to many of these people and showed them Figma.” – @zoink
4/ If you’re starting bottom-up, you don’t need to launch with a paid plan. 7 of the 25 companies I looked at (including @Dropbox, @figmadesign, and @airtable) had no paid plans when they launched. They acquired free users while working with their power-users to figure out paid.
6/ There are four options for charging B2B users: a flat monthly fee, a per-seat monthly fee, a usage-based fee, or a transaction fee. The majority of the companies I looked at charge a monthly per-seat fee, and sometimes include multiple changes (e.g. per-seat + monthly fee).
7/ Nearly every company offers a free option from the outset — usually a freemium tier, and occasionally a trial period.
