Calendly

Billboarding: your customers wear your logo for free

Julian defines 'billboarding,' a subtype of product-led growth anyone can use even without software. The OG examples are the Hotmail email signature and 'Sent from my iPhone'; every customer action quietly broadcasts your brand to others and keeps you top of mind for free.

“And billboarding is a subtype of product-led growth that is my favorite because anyone can do it. You don't have to be a software company. And I'll give you the OG example of billboarding. If I sign up for Hotmail and I send an email, and you know where I'm going with this, which is there's that Hotmail signature in the email, right? Or if I send with my iPhone, there's that sent from iPhone in the email signature, right?”

Steal thisEmbed your logo or a referral line into the artifact customers naturally share, so every use becomes a free impression.

Calendly: bootstrapped to $70M ARR, over $1B valuation

Sam picks Calendly as under-the-radar company of 2020 — started by a Nigerian immigrant in Atlanta, bootstrapped, around $70M in ARR, valuing the company north of $1B.

“He's at around $70 million in ARR. So the company's worth north of a billion dollars. I gotta give the award this year to Calendly.”

Calendly: $30M/yr, bootstrapped, founder from Nigeria

Sam cites Calendly as Cron's nearest competitor: a $30M/year company bootstrapped out of Atlanta by a founder who moved from Nigeria, arguing the category is more defensible than skeptics claim.

“Calendly is a plugin for Gmail. It's a $30 million a year company that's bootstrapped out of Atlanta, started by a guy who moved here from, I think, Nigeria.”