Before Twilio had a market cap approaching $56 billion and more than 200,000 customers, the cloud-communications platform developed a secret sauce to fuel its growth: a developer-focused model that dispensed with traditional marketing rules. Software companies that sell directly to end users share a simple framework for managing growth that leverages discoverability, desirability and do-ability — the “aha!” moment where a consumer is able to incorporate a new product into their workflow. Data show that traditional marketing doesn’t work on developers, and it’s not because they’re impervious to a sales pitch. Builders just want reliable tools that are easy to use. As a result, companies that are looking to create and sell software to developers at scale must toss their B2B playbooks and meet their customers where they are. Attorney Sophie Alcorn, our in-house immigration law expert, submitted two columns: On Monday, she analyzed a decision by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security not to cancel the International Entrepreneur Parole program, which potentially allows founders from other countries to stay in the U.S. for as long as 60 months. On Wednesday, she responded to a question from an entrepreneur who asked whether it made sense to sponsor visas for workers who are working remotely inside the U.S. Thanks very much for reading Extra Crunch this week, and have a great weekend. Walter Thompson Senior Editor, TechCrunch@yourprotagonist 4 lessons I learned about getting into Y Combinator (after 13 applications) Can you imagine making 13 attempts at something before attaining a successful… Click below to read the full story from TechCrunch
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Extra Crunch roundup: Selling SaaS to developers, cracking YC after 13 tries, all about Expensify
