"Individual contributors love your product so much they're willing to put their social capital on the line and spread it throughout their communities. Then they become internal champions at their big companies."
Start with core audience (ICs—designers in Figma's case)
Build product love within the tool, then beyond
ICs become internal champions at their orgs
Champion converts to enterprise revenue
The Early Strategy
No Sales Team for 3 Years
All revenue self-serve (credit card, not procurement)
No sales, marketing, or sales ops needed
Focused entirely on product features for ICs
Free tier as the top of the funnel
Champions come to you asking for help, not the reverse
0
sales reps first 3 years
100%
of leads: existing users
Self
-serve at scale
The sales conversionInternal champion says: "I want my whole company to use this, but security won't let me." You help unblock procurement instead of selling.
Go-to-Execution
How to Reach ICs (Especially Early)
Go to them, not bring them to you: They don't know you exist. Twitter, not your Slack.
Twitter was THE channel: Design community lived there natively long before Figma
Dylan's Twitter graph: Built a scraper that mapped influencers → followers → influence clusters (iconographers, product designers, etc.)
DM influencers for feedback: "Hey Raji, we'd love your feedback on Figma" (not "buy Figma")
The personal touch at scale
Dylan, engineers, and team members had personal Twitter presence. Put humans behind the brand, not just a logo handle.
Technical content as conversation
Share launches and best practices to spark discussion. Build confidence passively—let people follow along without using the product yet.
Scaling Motion
Advocates: The Magic Dust
Start with one person: your co-founder/gut-check partner
Scale to a team with every new product launch or region
Their job: build authentic relationships in communities, not sell
Example: 2 Japan-based designer advocates for Japan market launch
Why it works at scaleAdvocates ARE how Figma stays human and authentic when the company grows. They're the connective tissue between product and community at every stage.
Counterintuitive
Bottom-Up Growth Myths
✗Early startups need a sales teamINSTEAD →✓ No sales for 3 years. Self-serve bottoms-up is way more efficient if you can lock it in.
✗Build features execs want to buyINSTEAD →✓ Build features ICs love to use. Execs follow the adoption, not the other way.
✗Pay for marketing to reach your audienceINSTEAD →✓ Find where they already are (Twitter) and go there. Zero programmatic spend on ads.
✗Prioritize ALL the channels and tacticsINSTEAD →✓ Pick ONE channel (Twitter). Get advanced. Ignore everything else until it's broken.