Q4 2025: Joe's Goals

[joethreepwood]

Previously: #328

Boost cross-sell, especially with startups

We'll know we're successful when: PostHog for Startups ARR triples.

• Run a targeted campaign to users who use Replays but not Error Tracking to drive adoption of Error Tracking
• Run a targeted campaign to users who use Error Tracking but not Replays to drive adoption of Replays
• Run a targeted campaign to everyone using our Sentry integration to move them onto PostHog Error Tracking
• Explore a paid partnership with GetProven to expand VC partnerships
• Set the YC Onboarding Specialist up for success via the Hogpatch launch
• Collaborate with Christophe to define a trigger that identifies when startup (non-YC) teams should receive CSM support
• Work with Christophe and the YC Specialist to create a CSM playbook for startups, covering multiple products
• Explicitly position the contract buyout offer to startups to encourage faster onboarding
• Increase YC penetration back up to at least 60%
• Explore new YC partnership opportunities (events, Hogpatch promotion, etc.)
• Build a partnership program and page highlighting perks to attract more startups
• Create a video demo for startup teams that helps them get set up quickly
• Roll out internal case study videos via email to drive cross-sell
• Integrate the Cool Tech Jobs board into the YC process to increase engagement
• Improve the rejection emails to better support the Cool Tech Jobs board to increase the other end of the funnel
• Improve the merch redemption flow for startups — simplify into a single email
• Redesign changelog emails to feature all products, include video, and be more digestible
• Create a dedicated startup onboarding flow that promotes multiple products and includes ongoing email tips
• Extend the onboarding flow with a cross-sell path that activates after 30 days
• Drive dedicated outreach into at least 5 AI-focused VC funds for new partnerships (Conviction ✅ , https://www.aiproductheroes.pl/ ✅ )
• Revisit the idea of a startup referral program
• Add a LONG term flow for people 1 year in. (Why?)

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Other things Joe cares about this quarter

Some of this is BAU, but it's still I generally need to keep an eye on.

• Setting Cleo and Sara up for success, with especial focus regarding their goals
• Ensuring design doesn't become a blocker for other teams and the tasks flow well (Lottie really leading this)
• Mastering and documenting the new site design so I can work on it faster
• Giving DeskHog another community push
• Get out first AWS deal done
• Thinking ahead to a Christmas activity, ala Year In Review
• Landing the data warehouse price cut announcement

Personal

Constructive / improvement feedback

• Emotional intensity: I tend to have strong reactions to things and when I dislike something it sounds like hatred. Sometimes this leads to high standards. Other time it leads to me sounding very negative even though I'm genuinely a very happy person. I should stop being #JoeTheHater.
• Signal/noise ratio: I often seem to be the first person with an opinion and I rush to share it, crowding others out. That's good when it's in my area of expertise, but I need to be more selective about where I storm in like the Kool Aid man. Especially if my opinion is negative. Or if I'm making more bad jokes.
• Empire-building: At times I seem to take structural decisions personally, which comes across as protective of turf. Other times I end up over-engineering collaboration and doing things for people. I need to shift from coordinating others to enabling self-sufficiency. Less tilting at windmills, too.

[joethreepwood]

ooooh PostHog/posthog.com@1c74562

[charlescook-ph]

Forgive me for raising what I'm sure is the same question again, but I'm excited about cross sell - did you say that we shouldn't give people credit to try out other products? Or was there some way to do this?

[joethreepwood]

definitely didn’t say that!

My point was that the fastest way to encourage cross-sell -- given the already generous free limits we offer -- is to lean hard into contract buy-outs.

The fact that they need to pay for another product shouldn’t really be a blocker, since they can try it out easily within the free tier. Credits would only be a short-term fix — they don’t solve the real issue if the customer is already locked into another vendor’s contract.

A contract buy-out, on the other hand, uniquely unlocks those commitments, lets us win them over from competitors, and gets them fully committed to PostHog.

[charlescook-ph]

For a lot of earlier stage customers though, they probably don't have something in place or are just on a competitor month to month, so probably worth doing something?

(I agree we should do both, but I think we'd be missing a bunch of potential adoption where people just aren't aware the product exists - e.g. we were month to month on Sentry for years.)

[joethreepwood]

Yep, earlier stage companies will have a different approach. For example, want to work with Christophe on using CSMs to help onboard teams to multiple products in the startups program, want to extend the startup flow so we're doing more cross-product promotion, want to extend the onboarding flow with a long-term flow for all users that pushes cross-sell too.

Plan is to hit a bunch of different actions and points. The hard part here, IMHO, is whether we're able to measure the uplift -- from what I can tell cross-sell is really complex to dive into.

[joethreepwood]

(I would be further ahead on all of this and communicating more, but offsite and onboarding has been blocking me lately. Sorry!)

[charlescook-ph]

All good, just adding my continued interest/enjoyment of all things cross sell!