OpenView

When the market for Imprivata's founding idea was too small, the company changed course and pivoted successfully to grow into a multi-million dollar business. Omar Hussain, former President & CEO walks you through their journey.

Soar Past the $100M Revenue Mark

This time around, we’re broadening our horizons to talk about a lot of new stuff. From cracking App Store distribution with Privy, understanding sales culture at Figma, and unpacking the leadership framework that helped G2 become a billion dollar company. Blake even chats with fellow VC Ed Sim at Boldstart to understand what he looks for in seed stage PLG founders. We’re covering a lot of new ground in the season of BUILD, and we can’t wait to share it with you. So let’s dive in together and see what we can BUILD.

Blake joined OpenView in 2013 and has led investments in companies like Highspot, Calendly, Expensify, Postscript and Cypress, among others.

In 2016, Blake personally coined the term “product-led growth,” and continues to be a thought leader in the community as it has embraced PLG as the future of software. You can follow him on LinkedIn to watch his daily PLG news show called the #PLG123. 

Prior to OpenView, Blake was an investor at Battery Ventures, where he helped lead investments in companies like Glassdoor (acq. by Recruit Holdings), Wayfair (NYSE:W), and Q2 Holdings (NYSE:QTWO). 

Blake is originally from San Diego, and enjoys spending time in sunny Southern California whenever he can!

Blake Bartlett

Partner at OpenView

From cracking App Store distribution with Privy, understanding sales culture at Figma, and unpacking the leadership framework that helped G2 become a billion dollar company, on this season of BUILD we’re broadening our horizons.  We’re covering a lot of new ground, and we can’t wait to share it with you. So let’s dive in together and see what we can BUILD.


Season 11 | BUILD with Blake Bartlett

BUILD with Blake Bartlett

Ed is a really great VC. He backs founders from “Day 1” long before there’s a product. Even better, Ed happens to love PLG just as much as I do. We discuss the differences in backing PLG startups at different stages.

Ed is founder of Boldstart Ventures, a day one partner and true believer for enterprise infrastructure and SaaS founders. boldstart is a lead investor and often partners with technical founders at inception, helping accelerate their path to product market fit.

Ed is currently a board member/observer of Snyk, Kustomer, BigID, Harbr Data, Env0, and Cycle. Other notable day one investments include Superhuman, Security Scorecard, and Front. Over 25 years leading first round investments including LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN), GoToMeeting (acq. By Citrix), and Greenplum (acq. EMC/Pivotal). Ed has a BA in Economics from Harvard.



Ed Sim

Founder & Managing Partner

Ed is a really great VC. He backs founders from “Day 1” long before there’s a product. Even better, Ed happens to love PLG just as much as I do. We discuss the differences in backing PLG startups at different stages.


Ed Sim (Boldstart): What Do VCs Look for in PLG Founders?

Developer-focused roles are popping up everywhere. But what do all these roles do, exactly? Paige walks us through the biggest differences between developer relations and developer marketing, and how to build your team.

Paige is a Co-Founder and Partner at Calyx, a consultancy that launches and scales successful platforms. They help companies understand their core audiences, speak with them like actual humans, and launch programs that spur them to action. Clients include Zoom, 1Password, Niantic, WorkOS, HubSpot, and many more.

Paige previously led Platform & Developer Marketing at Slack, where she built the dev marketing team from the ground up. And before that, she led Marketing at ZenHub as a founding team member.

Paige Paquette

CEO & Co-Founder at Calyx Consulting, Former Head of Developer & Platform Marketing at Slack

Developer-focused roles are popping up everywhere. But what do all these roles do, exactly? Paige walks us through the biggest differences between developer relations and developer marketing, and how to build your team.


Paige Paquette (Calyx): Developer Relations vs. Developer Marketing

Paige built and scaled platform and developer marketing at Slack. The success of the Slack App Store and the like showed her what works (and what doesn’t) with developer programs. She shares her playbook for attracting and engaging developers to build great stuff for your app store or marketplace.

Paige is a Co-Founder and Partner at Calyx, a consultancy that launches and scales successful platforms. They help companies understand their core audiences, speak with them like actual humans, and launch programs that spur them to action. Clients include Zoom, 1Password, Niantic, WorkOS, HubSpot, and many more.

Paige previously led Platform & Developer Marketing at Slack, where she built the dev marketing team from the ground up. And before that, she led Marketing at ZenHub as a founding team member.


Paige built and scaled platform and developer marketing at Slack. The success of the Slack App Store and the like showed her what works (and what doesn’t) with developer programs. She shares her playbook for attracting and engaging developers to build great stuff for your app store or marketplace. 


Paige Paquette (Calyx): Building a Developer Program

CMOs own all the marketing, right? Wrong. CEOs need to be all-in on marketing too. But how? Hear about Ben’s working relationship with Privy's former CMO, Dave Gerhardt, on this episode of BUILD with Blake Bartlett.

Ben Jabbawy is the Founder and CEO of Privy.com, the leader in ecommerce marketing for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Privy's mission is to provide the tools, education, and support small ecommerce brands need to grow their online stores and build thriving businesses. Privy is used by over 500,000 stores in 180 countries and has driven over $6B in sales.

Ben is also the host of The Ecommerce Marketing School podcast and co-author of the Ecommerce Marketing Handbook. 

Ben Jabbawy

Founder & CEO at Privy

CMOs own all the marketing, right? Wrong. CEOs need to be all-in on marketing too. But how? Hear about Ben’s working relationship with Privy's former CMO, Dave Gerhardt, on this episode of BUILD with Blake Bartlett.


Ben Jabbawy (Privy): The CEO-CMO Relationship

Ben knows app stores. Privy is one of the most popular apps on the Shopify app store with nearly 25,000 reviews. Most companies focus on building the app itself, but distribution is just as important. Ben walks Blake through how to get traffic to your listing, and how to convert that traffic into a happy customer base.

Ben Jabbawy is the CEO and Founder of Privy, one of the most popular apps on the Shopify App Store with nearly 25,000 reviews. Most companies focus on building the app itself, but distribution is just as important. Ben joins the BUILD podcast with Blake Bartlett to talk through how to get traffic to your listing, and how to convert that traffic into a happy customer base.


Ben Jabbawy (Privy): App Store Distribution

Blog

It takes 3 ingredients to build a software startup in today’s wild market: people, product and growth. Easier said than done. OV BUILD is here to help by featuring conversations between venture capitalist Blake Bartlett and the smartest folks in software. OpenView is a VC firm that invests in amazing companies like Datadog, Expensify and Calendly. Visit ov.vc for more details.

BUILD with Blake Bartlett

Soar Past the $100M Revenue Mark

Soar Past the $100M Revenue Mark

More Episodes

Season 11 | BUILD with Blake Bartlett

Ed Sim (Boldstart): What Do VCs Look for in PLG Founders?

Paige Paquette (Calyx): Developer Relations vs. Developer Marketing

Paige Paquette (Calyx): Building a Developer Program

Ben Jabbawy (Privy): The CEO-CMO Relationship

Ben Jabbawy (Privy): App Store Distribution