DevTools Brew #32: LaunchDarkly Story: From Feature Flags to Unicorn, The Power of GitHub Stars: More Than Just Numbers...
Hey folks, welcome to DevTools Brew #32!
Hello to the 243 new folks who have joined Devtools Brew since last week's edition.
If you're new here, my name is Morgan Perry, co-founder of Qovery, and every Saturday, I share the stories, strategies, and insights behind the most successful devtool companies.
In this Issue #32:
📈 LaunchDarkly Story: From Feature Flags to Unicorn
💻 The Power of GitHub Stars: More Than Just Numbers
⭐ Star History Weekly Pick
💰 Devtools Funding Rounds of The Week
I hope you will enjoy this new edition.
Let's dive in!
📈 LaunchDarkly Story: From Feature Flags to Unicorn
Super excited to share today the fascinating story of LaunchDarkly, a trailblazer in the feature management space. Edith Harbaugh, Co-Founder and CEO of LaunchDarkly shared the incredible journey of how LaunchDarkly found its product-market fit and became a $3 billion company serving over 4,000 customers.
Key Takeaways
The Genesis - Feature Flagging for Smaller Companies
Edith's journey began as an engineer frustrated with building features no one wanted.
Recognized the need for a platform to enable slow rollouts, dark launches, and feature control for smaller companies.
Inspired by the advanced platforms used by tech giants like Facebook and LinkedIn.
Overcoming Early Rejections and Challenges
LaunchDarkly faced rejection from Y Combinator and 30 VCs.
Their Product Hunt launch didn't yield the expected results.
Success came when they focused on developers outside Silicon Valley who needed their solution.
Creating a Movement, Not Just a Product
Edith emphasizes the importance of creating a movement around your product.
Leveraged "brute-force" marketing through conferences, blogs, and podcasts.
The key advice: "Create a movement and then convince people to use the platform."
Early Marketing Efforts and Customer feedback
Edith initially had reservations about public speaking but gradually embraced it.
Her early talks and podcasts helped create brand awareness.
They learned that building trust required engaging with managers or directors, not just developers.
Building on Customer Love: The Fuel for Growth
Early customers like LinenTech expressed immense satisfaction with LaunchDarkly.
Positive feedback from customers fueled their determination to keep building.
Evolving GTM Strategy: From Founder Selling to a Self-Serve Machine
The timeline of LaunchDarkly's evolution from founder-led sales to a self-serve trial experience.
The turning point when inbound interest and bottom-up adoption started gaining momentum.
Transitioning from Self-Serve to Enterprise
Original Assumption of Self-Serve
LaunchDarkly initially assumed a self-serve model for customers to sign up and use the product independently.
Customer Resistance to Self-Serve
Early customers preferred a more traditional approach involving procurement, contracts, and security questionnaires.
They were willing to pay more for this enterprise-level experience.
Continued Self-Serve Funnel
LaunchDarkly continued to offer a self-serve option, but they also recognized the need to cater to customers who desired a more comprehensive experience.
Building a Dev Community and Effectiveness of Meetups
Origin of Testing and Production Meetup
The "Test in Production" meetup was established during LaunchDarkly's early days as a way to engage with the developer community and share ideas.
Effectiveness of Meetups
While the meetup wasn't massive in scale, it garnered a dedicated group of attendees who found substantial value in the content.
Some attendees eventually became long-term customers.
Content Repurposing
LaunchDarkly leveraged these meetups effectively by creating high-quality video content and insightful blog posts.
They maximized the impact of these events by distributing content widely across platforms.
Navigating Series A Funding Challenges and Lessons
Series A Funding Challenge
Raising the Series A round proved difficult due to the perception that developers were reluctant to pay for tools.
Edith emphasized the idea that people will pay for tools if they save time.
Fundraising Strategy
Edith's advice for founders is to view funding as the start of the next phase rather than an end goal.
Consider how to operate the business successfully even without VC funding.
CEO Evolution and Adapting Leadership
CEO Evolution
As a founder, your role evolves rapidly as the company grows.
In the early days, founders may function as individual contributors, but they transition into leadership roles.
Adapting Leadership
Regularly assess tasks to delegate or change.
Edith initially took on sales and ops roles but realized the need to hire specialists in those areas.
The Path to Success and Perseverance
Work and Perseverance
Edith emphasized that success often requires significant effort and a dedicated team.
There's no one-size-fits-all formula for success; it's about continuous learning and adaptation.
Edith Harbaugh's journey with LaunchDarkly offers valuable lessons on persistence, adaptation, and the power of building a community around your product. Stay tuned for more insights on the evolving landscape of developer tools companies.
—> To explore more, Listen to the full interview here - published by UnusualVC
💻 The Power of GitHub Stars: More Than Just Numbers
In the world of open-source software, GitHub stars have become a symbol of recognition and growth. But are they just vanity metrics, or do they hold real value? David Nevo, who leads the marketing at Novu and runs GitHub20k, shared insights into the significance of GitHub stars and how they impact open-source projects.
Key Takeaways
1. Credibility Matters
Developers often look at the number of GitHub stars when evaluating open-source libraries.
More stars can make your project the preferred choice, provided it's actively maintained.
While early adopters might go for smaller libraries, sustained growth in stars is vital for long-term credibility.
2. The All-Powerful Vanity Metric
GitHub stars represent organic growth and indicate your project's popularity.
Encouraging users to star your repository can lead to more contributors, pull requests, sign-ups, and visibility.
Novu's journey to 24k stars shows that growing stars can align with other success metrics.
3. Trending on GitHub Weekly
GitHub's Trending page is a hotspot for investors, contributors, and developers.
Achieving a spot on this page can be a game-changer for open-source libraries.
Rapidly accumulating stars from multiple sources can increase your chances of trending and drive significant growth.
4. Community Building and Branding
Not all community members will become paying customers, but they contribute to your brand's credibility.
Word-of-mouth referrals are a powerful channel for acquiring deals and customers, especially in Fortune 100 companies.
Community support can lead to exponential growth, with most customers discovering your project through friends.
5. Growing GitHub Stars
David Nevo has successfully grown Novu's stars to 20k+ stars, contributors, and customers.
He shared insights and strategies for explosive growth - read the story here.
In a world where GitHub stars are more than just numbers, understanding their value and leveraging them effectively can significantly impact the success of open-source projects.
—> To explore more, read the full article here - published initially by Star History (the website where I pick all my “Star History Weekly Pick” diagrams ^^)
⭐ Star History Weekly Pick
The Star History Weekly Pick is:
Hyperdx: “Resolve production issues fast. An open source observability platform unifying session replays, logs, metrics, traces, and errors.”
⭐️ 5k stars reached
💰 Devtools Funding Rounds of The Week
Anysphere raised $8M in Seed funding led by OpenAI’s Startup Fund to build an AI-powered IDE.
Deta, a Berlin, Germany- and NYC-based tech R&D startup dedicated to building a personal computer in the cloud, raised $3.6M in Seed funding.
TabbyML, an open-source challenger to GitHub Copilot, raised $3.2M in a Seed funding.
Modal Labs, a platform that provides cloud-based infrastructure to data teams and app developers, raised $16M in a Series A funding.
SuperOps.ai, a startup that streamlines the work of managed service providers, has raised $12.4M in Series B funding.
It’s already over! If you have any comments or feedback, you can reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Thanks for reading,
Morgan
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