🗓️ When booking meetings became a $140 million business!
This week, we're diving into the Calendly story and telling you how to crack the LinkedIn algorithm!
An ARR of 140 million from a product whose primary function is to simplify meeting bookings seems almost unbelievable. Yet, the Calendly team has achieved this figure with a double-digit growth rate year on year. Let's delve into how they started and what they did right.
The founding story
Awotona failed three times before he finally succeeded with Calendly. His first business was a dating website, his second was an e-commerce site selling projectors, and his third was a company that sold garden tools. All three businesses failed because Awotona didn't have enough experience or knowledge about the industries he was entering.
Calendly was built to address a personal frustration: the back-and-forth email dance of setting up meetings. The idea was simple, make scheduling as easy as possible.
Simple UX
Calendly's genius lies in its simplicity. By focusing on a straightforward problem - the often frustrating task of scheduling meetings - Calendly provided a solution that was both easy to understand and use. The platform's user-friendly interface allows anyone, from top-tier executives to freelancers, to share their availability through a link. This simplicity led to virality. Think about it: every time someone receives a Calendly link and books a meeting, they're introduced to the platform. Many of these first-time users, impressed by the ease of the process, end up becoming Calendly users themselves. It's a ripple effect. One person shares their link, and before you know it, their entire network is on board.
Accidental PLG
Tope Awotona initially wanted Calendly to be a paid product. However, due to financial constraints, they opted for a freemium model. This "accidental" decision turned out to be a game-changer. By offering a free version, Calendly was able to rapidly expand its user base. The more people used and shared Calendly, the more backlinks they generated, boosting the platform's online presence and SEO
Nailing their ICP and sticking to the product strategy
Calendly's CPO, Annie Pearl, mentioned in a podcast with Lenny that the company has decided not to have a Venmo integration, despite strong requests from solopreneurs and creators. This decision is based on Calendly's product vision and strategy, which is to focus on providing calendaring and scheduling solutions for businesses. Calendly believes that a Venmo integration would not be a good fit for its target market.
This is a good example of how Calendly is making decisions that align with its product strategy, even if it means not catering to all user requests. By focusing on its target market, Calendly is able to provide a better product experience for its users.
Their target market is reflected in their messaging and events. For example, most of their ads talk about how sales teams can boost productivity and booking by leveraging Calendly. They also host events in line with their main ICPs: SDRs, recruiters, and customer success managers. Additionally, they have added a slew of integrations that will help these personas, such as Gong, Zapier, Slack, and Notion.
Closing Thoughts
Calendly has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 2013. Today, it is a leading calendaring and scheduling platform with over 10 million users. Calendly's success is due to its focus on simplicity, its freemium model, and its deep understanding of its target market.
Calendly's goal now is to be a one-stop shop for everything related to meetings, from scheduling to engagement. It wants to help businesses have more productive and successful meetings.
👌 How to crack the LinkedIn algorithm!
That’s all for today, folks! We hope you enjoyed this week’s newsletter. 🤗
Until next week, keep learning and growing! 👋