This week on Next Gen Builders, Francois is joined by Sheila Vashee, Chief Marketing Officer at Figma, the widespread design and collaboration platform whose mission is to “make design accessible for everyone.”

Sheila shares how she pioneered product-led growth (PLG) at Dropbox to scale the team to 80+ and $1B in revenue, advice for marketing teams hoping to evolve their own PLG efforts, and why she believes the tension between PLG & PLS is solvable within any enterprise. 

There are plenty of insights from throughout Sheila’s career that she shares with Francois including: falling in love with the problem, understanding your audience deeply, and continuously testing hypotheses to drive growth. She stresses the importance of building a data-driven organization and the necessity of clear segmentation and resource allocation when implementing PLG. 

Ultimately, Sheila’s message is clear as she tells the audience to stay curious, continually seek knowledge from others in the industry, and always prioritize understanding and addressing customer needs. This episode is filled with valuable advice for anyone looking to elevate their career in product-led growth, marketing, and data-driven decision-making.

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Guest Bio

Sheila Vashee is the Chief Marketing Officer at Figma, overseeing the GTM + Product Support teams. Prior to joining Figma, Sheila served as CMO at Ethos, a VP of Marketing and Growth at Opendoor, and was the second marketing hire at Dropbox. Sheila is also an advisor at Basis Set Ventures, an early stage investing firm. She started her career as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and holds an MBA from UC Berkeley and a BA from Stanford in Economics.

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Guest Quote

“The whole company has to be centered around PLG for it to be successful. It has to be how product, growth, marketing, sales, and support are built.” – Sheila Vashee

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Time Stamps 

*(02:00) Sheila's career journey 

*(02:59) Standing out as a founder

*(04:28) How to tell a good story

*(07:25) What is PLG?

*(10:29) Dropbox and how Sheila pioneered PLG

*(17:52) Sheila's Oh Sh*t moment

*(21:59) Can PLG work with enterprise?

*(26:20) What Sheila would do differently in her journey

*(28:37) Exploring PLG dynamics across different companies

*(31:07) Why you need to be data-driven

*(32:22) Structuring a successful growth organization

*(38:07) Sheila's advice for aspiring marketers

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Links

• Connect with Sheila Vashee on LinkedIn
• Check out Figma
• Connect with Francois Ajenstat on LinkedIn
• Check out Amplitude