178: How to Build a Data Stack to Win PLG, Featuring Peter Chapman

Highlights from this week’s conversation include:

• Peter's background and journey in data (0:26)
• Introduction to PLG (4:18)
• Starting in data at Heroku (6:05)
• Building the data stack at Heroku (8:13)
• Data stack requirements for early-stage companies (12:00)
• Differentiating PLG companies from open source companies (19:26)
• Venture capital and open source as a lever for growth (22:56)
• Initial data modeling and analysis (25:38)
• Operationalizing Data (29:16)
• Sales and Marketing Operationalization (31:52)
• Identifying Signals (34:16)
• Challenges in Developing Signals (37:07)
• Account Management for Developer Tools (42:30)
• Challenges in Achieving Margins (45:02)
• Leveraging Infrastructure for Margins (47:35)
• Inference vs Training (54:55)
• Final thoughts and takeaways (57:02)

The Data Stack Show is a weekly podcast powered by RudderStack, the CDP for developers. Each week we’ll talk to data engineers, analysts, and data scientists about their experience around building and maintaining data infrastructure, delivering data and data products, and driving better outcomes across their businesses with data.

RudderStack helps businesses make the most out of their customer data while ensuring data privacy and security. To learn more about RudderStack visit rudderstack.com.