PostHog's Radical Transparency and Unconventional Marketing Drive Growth

Key Quotes

"we help users to debug their products to ship features faster through kind of things like feature flags and so on and we help keep all their kind of customer and product data in one stack"

James Hawkins explains that PostHog's core function is to assist users in debugging products and accelerating feature deployment. This involves managing customer and product data within a unified system, indicating a focus on developer efficiency and data consolidation.

"we started with just open source product analytics on hacker news we spent like the last four weeks of the batch uh desperately trying to get that out of the door and then we hit like we actually we could pivot we could iterate or we say afterwards and now we're all cloud based with multi products but that was the thing that landed um for us finally"

Hawkins describes the initial successful product for PostHog as open-source product analytics, launched on Hacker News after intense development during a Y Combinator batch. He notes that this was a pivotal moment, leading to subsequent pivots and the eventual shift to a cloud-based, multi-product offering.

"we went full gas on each idea like we didn't sort of like call it in like we would go in person to everything single customer that was remotely interested we'd go in person to go meet and we started in uh england then became san francisco's to do yc like we'd catch like a bunch of trains and buses to get to a customer in some random place and like we would put the effort in to go really push it"

This quote highlights the team's intense dedication during their early "pivot hell" phase. Hawkins emphasizes their commitment to pursuing each idea with full effort, including in-person customer meetings regardless of location, demonstrating a strong work ethic and a desire to thoroughly test each concept.

"i think the reality is for us it's we had to just build a bunch of things to find the thing we're excited about what we didn't do was like sit cross legged on the top of a mountain waiting for inspiration so by trying a few things we started going ah this idea just doesn't feel good but we know that because we have tried it"

Hawkins explains that finding a successful idea for PostHog was an iterative process of building and testing rather than waiting for inspiration. He suggests that actively trying different concepts, even if they don't work out, provides valuable learning and helps identify what resonates with both the team and the market.

"the whole point is like it has to stand out in the environment and we need people to we won't be able to talk about and see it and we're not trying to get conversion like it's you're unlikely to decide to install like our sdk while you're driving your car down the freeway so instead of trying to please everyone we're not going to care about conversion we are just going to try and raise awareness"

Hawkins discusses the strategy behind PostHog's unconventional billboard marketing. He states that the primary goal is to create awareness by being bizarre and standing out in a crowded environment, rather than focusing on immediate conversion, acknowledging that such a decision is unlikely to occur while driving.

"marketing to me is like because we're in a busy industry it's about standing out and so there's no point doing 8020 like there's just it's just a missed shot it's like actually all the times the website has come from like the last percent of effort where it's like no we're going to go like so insanely far past what is normal that it is remarkable which means that people will talk about it"

Hawkins articulates his philosophy on marketing in a competitive industry, emphasizing the need to go beyond conventional efforts. He believes that true differentiation comes from investing the "last percent of effort" to create something remarkable, which then naturally generates conversation and attention.