He burned $4M to hit $100K ARR—but with 1 big change, he grew to $4.5M ARR in just 12 months. | Guy Podjarny, Founder of Snyk & Tessl

A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders

Content provided by Mistral.vc. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Mistral.vc or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

24d ago 50:43

MP3•Episode home

Guy spent 2 years and $4M building Snyk to $100K ARR. Thousands of developers loved the product. They just wouldn't pay.

Then he figured out the problem: he had product-user fit, but not product-buyer fit. Developers loved Snyk. Security teams (the actual buyers) didn't care about it. The distance between user and buyer was killing him.

So Guy spent a year building governance features, reporting, and enterprise capabilities—all the stuff developers didn't care about but security teams needed to write checks.

Four months later, Snyk hit $650K ARR.

A year after that, $4.5M.

Then $19M.

Today it's over $300M ARR.

This episode breaks down the brutal reality of PLG when your user isn't your buyer, why Guy thinks the worst outcome for a founder is getting stuck (not failing), and how he's now raising $125M for his next company Tessl.

If you're building PLG, selling to enterprise, or wondering why your users love you but won't pay—this is required listening.

Why You Should Listen:

Learn why thousands of users loving your product means nothing if they won't pay
Discover the difference between product-user fit and product-buyer fit
Understand why the worst outcome isn't failure—it's getting stuck in the grey zone
Master the art of anchoring in the future instead of just filling today's gaps

Keywords:

startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, PLG strategy, product-user fit vs product-buyer fit, developer tools, security startup, enterprise sales, bottoms-up GTM, Snyk founder
Chapters:

(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:37) The first start up :Blaze.io"
(00:06:16) The Beginning & Concept of Skyk
(00:15:27) Why use Snyk
(00:23:41) The Product Led Growth for Snyk
(00:33:08) Raising for Snyk
(00:38:58) The Beginning & Concept of TESL
(00:46:39) Raising for TESL
(00:48:52) Finding PMF
(00:49:26) One Piece of Advice
Send me a message to let me know what you think!

Chapters

1. He burned $4M to hit $100K ARR—but with 1 big change, he grew to $4.5M ARR in just 12 months. | Guy Podjarny, Founder of Snyk & Tessl (00:00:00)

2. The first start up :Blaze.io" (00:01:37)

3. The Beginning & Concept of Skyk (00:06:16)

4. Why use Snyk (00:15:27)

5. The Product Led Growth for Snyk (00:23:41)

6. Raising for Snyk (00:33:08)

7. The Beginning & Concept of TESL (00:38:58)

8. Raising for TESL (00:46:39)

9. Finding PMF (00:48:52)

10. One Piece of Advice (00:49:26)

239 episodes

#Entrepreneur #Business #Mistral.vc #Tech Startups #Tech #Startups #Product Market Fit