🎙️ podcast Analysis November 28, 2025 The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Sta

The PLG Trap: Why Enterprise Sales Infrastructure Beats Viral Growth

Sales Enablement Infrastructure Enterprise Sales Training
Tickers
2 Picks
Conviction MEDIUM
Risk Profile 2.9/10 (MODERATE RISK)
Horizon 18-24 months

Executive Summary

John McMahon, the only executive to serve as CRO at five public software companies, delivered a masterclass that exposes a critical market blind spot: the inevitable collision between Product-Led Growth (PLG) euphoria and enterprise sales reality. His core thesis—that complex enterprise software cannot be sold through PLG alone—directly contradicts the venture capital obsession with viral growth models. McMahon's warning about the 'PLG trap' reveals a structural opportunity: companies that built...

Key Investment Opportunity

HubSpot: The PLG-to-Enterprise Bridge Infrastructure Play

HubSpot represents the ideal positioning for McMahon's PLG trap thesis. As companies discover they cannot scale to enterprise through pure PLG, they need platforms that can bridge low-touch onboarding with high-touch enterprise sales processes. HubSpot's evolution from marketing automation to full s...

...and 1 more investment opportunities

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