What is product-led growth?

Product-led growth (PLG) is a go-to-market strategy in which the product itself does the selling: users sign up self-serve, reach value without talking to anyone, and upgrades happen in-product as usage grows. Free tiers and trials feed the top of the funnel; sales, where it exists, follows usage signals instead of cold outreach.

PLG’s fingerprints are visible from the outside — transparent pricing, “start free” buttons, credit-card-optional signup — which makes a competitor’s motion easy to read and worth reading: a sales-led rival adding self-serve signup is repositioning for a different buyer, and usually about to change prices too. Most mature companies end up hybrid, with PLG at the low end and sales on top.