Create a 'PostHog for Startups' page that makes signing up a no-brainer

[charlescook-ph]

We should create a 'PostHog for Startups' page. We can call it Hoglets. 

I am really not a designer, so I thought I'd just list out the elements I think this needs in order to be successful. Let me know what you think!

The product deal

• Get PostHog Cloud free for 12 months with up to 20m events and 50,000 session recordings per month (same as YC, though the goodies/support are different).    - This is worth $38k per year.   - EDIT: Or offer $50k in credit

The extra goodies

• Free office hours - every month we will host 2x office hours. One is product-focused with our CEO and Head of Product to talk about PMF, ICP, product-led growth, what metrics to track etc. etc. The other is ops-focused with our Head of CS and VP Ops to talk about ops, commercial, pricing, legal, hiring etc. You can also have their email addresses to contact them any time. Within reason. This is worth about $5k/mo if you paid some fancy advisor or lawyer for help. 
• We'll send you a lil merch pack (mug, stickers, origami) - need to make this in Printfection. 
• Every month, we will pick a startup of the month to spotlight. We'll post about you on our socials and do a short interview with you. 
• Doing a launch? Let us know and we'll retweet, upvote you on ProductHunt etc.
• Open source and/or a devtool? Pitch us at hedgehog.vc - we typically invest $250k.
• Why don't you offer credits to other companies like Mixpanel? Because all of those are available if you just go to the company directly anyway - it's not a real benefit.
• Send this page to your investor or accelerator where they can apply to be a partner. If they sign up, we'll double your credits and send you a custom pair of PostHog Airpods.

(We could be funny here and literally put a price on every single one of these - Mixpanel benefits? $0. Investor cheque? $250k.)

The page itself

• posthog.com/startups (and link to this from pricing page?)
• Hero image idea below (but obv with different text - e.g. 'PostHog's startup program' vs. 'We gave you AWS credits, good luck')
• The quote from YC
• A quote specifically about how great PostHog is for startups? (check G2) or a few logos of cool startups using us
• Links to relevant articles, e.g. 80/20, ICP, finance, ops toolkit
• FAQs
  • What about YC? See Bookface deal
  • Eligibility? Less than 2 years old and <$5m funding
  • Retroactive? Yes but only if you signed up in the last 3 months
  • What if I go over the limit? First time we'll warn you, second time we'll charge you

The process

• Sign up for a free account and then email startups@posthog.com - CS can then apply the deal?
• At the end you'll either start paying or we'll warn you to reduce your usage if necessary

[charlescook-ph]

tagging @simfish85 @lharries as I'd be asking you to get involved :)

[timgl]

I'm on the fence on whether we should do $40k in credits instead, as we are planning to start charging for a bunch more products. That way they can just use the credits against any products they want to turn on.

[charlescook-ph]

I'm on the fence on whether we should do $40k in credits instead, as we are planning to start charging for a bunch more products. That way they can just use the credits against any products they want to turn on.

I don't have an opinion here, but if we do that, let's do $50k credits and match Mixpanel? (I know, not the same product etc. but people will probably make a headline comparison).

[simfish85]

I'm up for this although as it is generous we need to be super clear about what we mean by startup, otherwise anyone could show up and say "I'm a startup"

[charlescook-ph]

we need to be super clear about what we mean by startup

I suggested less than 2 years old and <$5m funding (which is in line with how a lot of other companies do it). By setting the 2 year limit, it means we're not offering this to bootstrapped companies doing lots of revenue who've been around a long time.

[timgl]

I don't have an opinion here, but if we do that, let's do $50k credits and match Mixpanel? (I know, not the same product etc. but people will probably make a headline comparison).

Makes sense to me.

[charlescook-ph]

Detailed page outline

Following the new product page template as a guide

Hero

• Title: PostHog for Startups
• Subtitle: $50k plus extras you'll actually use, to help you get to product-market fit
• Get started button only (with a line saying sign up and strapline saying email startups@posthog.com to get your credit?)

Overview

• Image: @lottiecoxon what do you think would work best here?
• Get $50k credit to use for 12 months on PostHog Cloud
• Equivalent to over 30m events and 50k recordings per month
• Exclusive private office hours with PostHog's exec team

Quote block

Extra perks (same as the 'Features' section in the template)

• Every month, we will pick a startup of the month to spotlight. We'll do a short interview with you which we'll share on posthog.com and our socials.
• PostHog merch - because you can never have too much.
• Doing a launch? Let us know and we'll retweet, upvote you on ProductHunt, and generally spread the word.
• Send this page to your investor or accelerator where they can apply to be a partner. If they sign up, we'll double your credits and send you a custom pair of PostHog AirPods.

Docs & resources

• A story about pivots
• The 80/20 of early-stage startup analytics
• What we learned about hiring from our first five employees
• How to run a transparent startup
• How we made something people want
• The ops toolkit for early-stage startups
• How to run finance at your startup without hiring a finance person
• Developer marketing for early-stage startups – what we’ve learned

FAQs

• How do I apply? Just sign up and then email startups@posthog.com and we'll apply the credit.
• Who's eligible? Your company needs to be less than 2 years old and have raised <$5m funding.
• I signed up before this deal launched, can I still get it? Yes but only if you signed up in 2023.
• What if I go over the $50k limit? At that point you can either move onto PostHog Free or PostHog Scale.
• What happens at the end of the 12 months? At that point you can either move onto PostHog Free or PostHog Scale.
• How come you don't offer credits for AWS, Segment etc. like Mixpanel does? Because all of those are available if you just go to the company directly anyway.

[lharries]

I'm up for running the office hours. If of interest - each batch I'm happy to do a guided integration for a few of them to see where they get stuck or just a more general 1-1 chat with the slightly later stage ones (to help inform the product and roadmap)

[charlescook-ph]

Just waiting for the PR to merge. Next steps for me to do:

• [x] Create startups@posthog.com and add CS and me to it
• [x] Document how we will actually run this in the Handbook
• [x] Probably create an email list of all these users in Customer.io @joethreepwood so we can send them invites to things like office hours? (Happy to do this myself but just might need a bit of guidance initially!)

[joethreepwood]

• [ ] Probably create an email list of all these users in Customer.io @joethreepwood so we can send them invites to things like office hours? (Happy to do this myself but just might need a bit of guidance initially!)

How are you collecting this list - is it a manual list that you vet based on who emails in, or is it based on an event? It won't be too big a problem either way, but will impact whether we can automate this or not.

[charlescook-ph]

is it a manual list that you vet based on who emails in

I think we'll have to do it this way as we need to check people briefly. I'm happy to then manually add these email addresses to the right place!

[joethreepwood]

OK, great.

I've made a manual segment called PostHog for Startups. You can manually add people to that segment by following the directions here.

Let me know if you need any help!

[charlescook-ph]

Ok MVP is done and PR documenting all this is out so I'm gonna close this PR