We covered AWS's "everything store" strategy and marketplace evolution – but his insights on Product-Led Growth (PLG) strategies for cloud marketplaces were particularly eye-opening.

Michael Musselman is co-founder of PCAN and former VP of Partnerships at Astronomer. Previously he led Lacework's Cloud GTM, scaling its marketplace revenue from $0 to $50M+ with 300-700% YoY growth.

Here are 5 key Insights on PLG from our conversation (check the full episode below):

1️⃣ PLG doesn't mean all-or-nothing for enterprise products

Even with complex enterprise products you can create simplified PLG entry points without a full product overhaul.

"At Lacework, we slowly added something... We didn't really do it like a full 'here's all of Lacework'... We actually just took what we could and built a really simple assessment… It was a very guided experience to connect it to your test environment and maybe your production environment. Couple of clicks. Couple of minutes. Boom! You get an answer that says, 'Hey, on a score of one to a hundred, here's kind of how risky you are.'"

2️⃣ AWS Seller Prime is a game-changer for PLG

This often-overlooked AWS program (now available for partners) provides critical marketplace analytics while helping you fund your PLG marketing efforts with cloud provider dollars. Michael leaned on this program at Astronomer.

"That program did two things... Number one, it came with a whole bunch of MDF, like tens of thousands of dollars... The second thing is it also unlocked open telemetry. You can't always see who's hitting your marketplace…that program also unlocks a bunch of analytics”"

3️⃣ Use marketplace tiers to create natural upgrade paths

The smartest companies build a seamless journey from self-service discovery to enterprise contracts – all within the marketplace ecosystem.

At Astronomer, Michael strategically used different product tiers to allow customers to start on a marketplace with free and lower-tier offerings and naturally progress to more comprehensive solutions.

"We also had 3 tiers of product, and our marketplace listing only had the developer tier... we unlocked the free, the developer tier with the teams tier. So now you can go Pay-As-You-Go directly onto the marketplace... And then when we sold business or enterprise, obviously you were engaged with us."

4️⃣ Even largest enterprise customers sometimes prefer using PAYG on marketplace

Contrary to common belief, some large enterprises deliberately choose consumption-based PAYG purchasing to maintain flexibility.

"We had Fortune 500 companies that started that way and wanted to stay that way. They didn't want to commit. They just wanted to be able to unplug at any time, but you'd see them spending 10, 20, 30 grand a month on our pay-go."

5️⃣ Optimize your marketplace listing like you would your website

Most companies treat marketplace listings as static catalogs rather than discovery engines that respond to optimization.

"All of those little features or telemetries I mentioned - vendor insight, built on AWS - these are all tags... Amazon- they're not a search engine, but they run a marketplace. Clearly the more bells and whistles and buttons I push and filters that I have, it's probably in their algorithms that can help me.

Most people don't realize you can upload assets. You can upload videos. There's no different than SEO."

As cloud marketplace adoption accelerates, use these practical insights on PLG from someone who's lived the journey.

What's your biggest challenge with marketplace PLG strategies?