Evolving Enterprise 2021: How Stripe and Twilio Approach the API Economy

TL;DR

Stripe and Twilio moved from developer-led growth toward enterprise sales by addressing new decision-makers without abandoning their developer communities. Stripe learned to sell first to CFOs and later to heads of payments, while Twilio added a top-down approach for leaders in customer support, marketing, and product management. Read on for specific lessons about buyer personas, messaging, product strategy, and developer engagement.

Transcript

hi everyone very excited for evolving enterprise this year i'm tiffany luck an investor at ggb capital where i focus on enterprise software and excited to be joined today by jean grosser the head of america's revenue and growth at strength and sarah varney the chief marketing officer at twilio for a great discussion on the api economy so gene and s... Read More

Key Insights

• 🎯 Transitioning from a product-focused company to a platform-focused company requires a shift in sales strategies and targeting different buyer personas.
• 💍 Engaging and fostering a developer community is crucial for platform success.
• 🔠 The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of APIs and highlighted their importance in enabling digital transformation and innovation.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did Stripe and Twilio move from developer-led growth to enterprise sales?

Stripe expanded beyond its developer- and founder-driven sales motion by learning to address financial buyers, CFOs, and heads of payments as it moved upmarket. Twilio similarly added a top-down approach aimed at enterprise decision-makers while retaining its bottom-up connection with developers.

Q: Why did Stripe begin targeting different buyer personas?

Stripe found that developers were no longer the final decision-makers inside larger companies. Its relevant buyer shifted to the CFO around the Series C and Series D stages, then to a head of payments within larger enterprise accounts.

Q: How did Stripe adapt its product strategy for financial leaders?

Stripe created a product team whose documented goal was to make heads of finance love Stripe as much as developers do. This reflected the need to serve the priorities of the people making decisions in larger companies.

Q: How does Twilio balance developer adoption with enterprise selling?

Twilio maintains its bottom-up approach because its developer community helped make the company what it is. At the same time, it uses a top-down approach to reach decision-makers across customer support, marketing, and product management.

Q: How did Twilio change its marketing for business decision-makers?

Twilio continued telling developers, “We can’t wait to see what you build,” because developers prefer the freedom to solve problems themselves. For business audiences, its messaging became more prescriptive by identifying a concrete need, such as delivery notifications, and explaining how Twilio could address it.

Q: What was Stripe's sales model before it moved upmarket?

Stripe predominantly sold to Series A and Series B technology companies through a developer- and founder-driven motion. That approach produced strong organic growth, but working with bigger companies required Stripe to develop enterprise-oriented sales capabilities.

Q: When did Stripe and Twilio begin building formal sales functions?

Jean said he joined Stripe five years earlier, when the company was about six months into doing anything official from a sales perspective. Sarah described Twilio as a 13-year-old company with a three-year-old sales team, emphasizing how recently it had added a true go-to-market function.

Q: What attracted Jean and Sarah to Stripe and Twilio?

Jean was drawn to Stripe's potential as the economy shifted online and to the opportunity to build products alongside customers. Sarah joined Twilio because of its work helping B2C customers expand how they think about customer engagement after she had spent 10 years working on Sales Cloud at Salesforce.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Stripe and Twilio have successfully navigated the transition from being developer-centric companies to targeting enterprise sales.

• Stripe shifted its focus from selling to developers to selling to financial buyers and head of payments personas in larger companies.

• Twilio expanded its approach to include a top-down sales strategy while still maintaining its strong developer community.