Snyk’s Early Days: Turning Security on its Head

Historically, security tools followed a centralized, top-down motion, targeting security teams and decision-makers like CTOs and CIOs. These tools focused more on audits and enforcement, often slowing down developers and frustrating adoption efforts.

The founders of Snyk saw an opportunity to do things differently. They recognized that developers cared deeply about code security-just as much as they valued performance and quality. But the tools available weren’t built with developers in mind.

Snyk decided to flip the script, pioneering a developer-first approach.

The First Step: Meet Developers Where They Are

Snyk launched with Snyk Stranger, a free tool designed to combat vulnerabilities in open-source libraries used by Node.js developers. This lightweight CLI tool empowered developers to address vulnerabilities like Heartbleed, Shellshock, and Logjam.

Despite describing the product as a "crappy little tool," Guy Podjarny’s goal was clear: test the market, gather feedback, and validate their belief that developers wanted a security tool they could actually use.

Key Learning #1: Start with Developers

Snyk’s early traction came from focusing on one persona-developers-and providing depth over breadth. This focus built credibility, trust, and early adoption among developers. 

Snyk knew that success in the DevTool space required community engagement. Developers trust their peers, rely on open-source projects, and value hands-on experience. By engaging deeply with the Node.js community, Snyk’s founders built strong connections. They asked developers about vulnerabilities in their code, provided solutions, and encouraged feedback.

By the end of 2015, 1,000 developers had downloaded Snyk Stranger. But there was one problem - they didn’t know who these developers were!

Knowing Your Users: The GitHub Sign-Up Moment

In the early days, Snyk faced a critical challenge: they had no way of knowing who their users were. Developers downloaded and used their tool, but the team lacked visibility into who these developers were, what companies they belonged to, or how engaged they were with the product. They realized that without understanding who their users were, they couldn’t effectively scale or tailor their efforts. In response, they implemented GitHub login for registration.

This simple step not only provided visibility into their user base but also paved the way for strategic growth:

• User Segmentation: By analyzing data from GitHub sign-ups, Snyk could segment their users based on personas, activity levels, and engagement patterns. This helped them understand which types of developers were adopting their tool and how their product was penetrating different organizations.
• Targeted Engagement: With clearer insights, Snyk refined its marketing and product strategies, ensuring they delivered value to the right audiences at the right time.
• Optimized Resource Allocation: Knowing their users allowed Snyk to prioritize limited Sales and Marketing resources effectively. They could focus on high-value accounts and make better decisions about where to direct their efforts.

Key Learning #2: Data is Everything

Offering free tools can build a strong developer base, but knowing your users is non-negotiable for growth. Insights into user activity, personas, and engagement enable smarter decisions, sharper targeting, and better monetization strategies.

The Monetization Experiment: A Lesson in Selling

By 2016, Snyk had built a strong developer community. Confident in their traction, they introduced a self-serve paywall - once a developer crossed a certain threshold of tests per month, they’d be prompted to upgrade to the paid plan. But the results were underwhelming.

“We opened the floodgates and got a trickle.”
– Guy Podjarny

Why?

Developer Adoption ≠ Purchasing Power.

While developers loved the product, they weren’t the ones making purchase decisions. The budgets and purchasing power lay with security leaders and CTOs, who weren’t part of the journey.

The Pivot: Engaging the Buyer Persona

Realizing that developer adoption alone wouldn’t drive revenue, Snyk had to rethink almost everything from Product to its GTM approach. The team recognized that security buyers had very different priorities compared to developers. To cater to these decision-makers, Snyk made key adjustments across its product and GTM strategy:

Step 1: Understand Buyers: Understanding your buyers is critical—what your buyers care about most might be surprisingly different from what your users love! In Snyk’s early days, developers coding in a handful of supported languages absolutely loved the tool for solving their specific security problems. However, security buyers—the decision-makers—wanted more. They needed a solution that could scale across the entire organization, covering 80-90% of their tech stack. For buyers, breadth and scalability were non-negotiable, while developers focused on solving problems within their language of choice.

Step 2: Adapt Product Features: Snyk adapted its product to cater to enterprise needs across three critical stages of the buyer journey:

•  Entering POC:
  
  • Introduced dedicated login options for security professionals.
  • Added support for more languages (e.g., Scala, Java, Go, Python).

Impact: Made evaluations easier by showcasing broader relevance.

• Succeeding at POC:
  
  • Enhanced reporting, license compliance, and enterprise integrations.
  • Supported on-premise source-code management.

Impact: Reduced adoption friction by aligning with enterprise workflows.

•  Post-Acquisition Success:
  
  • Provided enterprise-grade support with 24-hour SLAs and dedicated Account Managers.
  • Integrated Single Sign-On (SSO) for seamless authentication.

Impact: Improved onboarding and drove widespread adoption across teams.

Step 3: Hybrid Motion: Snyk adopted a hybrid GTM motion that combined bottom-up developer adoption with top-down sales engagement.

• Developers continued to champion Snyk within their organizations.
• Sales teams focused on reaching decision-makers, armed with proof points from developer usage and tailored messaging that addressed buyer priorities.

This strategy allowed Snyk to leverage its developer-first motion while ensuring buyers felt confident about adopting the tool at an enterprise scale.

Key Learning #3: Developers are the Start, Not the End

Developer adoption drives engagement, but converting that adoption into revenue requires engaging buyers. Aligning developer and buyer priorities is critical for DevTool companies.

Leveraging Product-Led Sales (PLS) for Enterprise Growth

Since Snyk had started off as developer first, when they introduced a paid tier for enterprise customers, the majority of their inquiries were inbound. 

They focused on identifying Product-Qualified Leads (PQLs) - organizations where developers had engaged deeply enough with the product to demonstrate clear potential for monetization. Based on a user’s depth of engagement, they were categorized under 4 buckets: Dormant, Casual, Core, or Progressive.

Each bucket is grouped by how many unique days in the last 30 days an account fixed a vulnerability.The percentages showed a correlation with long-term twelve-month retention. Only 5% of Dormant accounts were retained, and still fixing vulnerabilities using Snyk twelve months later.

This segmentation helped Snyk focus its efforts on accounts with the highest retention and revenue potential. Accounts with higher engagement were far more likely to stick around and showed greater readiness for monetization. Once these high intent accounts were identified, Snyk deployed targeted Conversion Playbooks to turn these PQLs into paying enterprise customers. Here’s how it worked:

1. Identify Decision-Makers

For each high-intent account, the sales team mapped out a list of five senior decision-makers such as security leaders, CTOs, and CIOs.

2. Contextual Sales Outreach

Since there was a lot of data to understand the need of the organisation, instead of cold calls, the outreach was based on the organization’s specific engagement patterns.

3. Formalize the Relationship‍

By the time the sales reps reached out, the product had already demonstrated its value through developer engagement. This made conversations less about selling and more about formalizing a partnership, ensuring alignment between developer use cases and buyer needs.

Key Learning #4: Invest in Intent Signals

Using intent data from developer activity enables targeted outreach. This precision ensures sales teams spend their time on high-potential accounts, accelerating deal closures.

The Results: From Open Source to Enterprise Success

Snyk’s pivot to a hybrid GTM motion transformed its growth trajectory. By addressing developer and buyer needs, Snyk secured major enterprise customers like Salesforce, Intuit, and Atlassian.

Today, Snyk generates $343.8M ARR, serving over 3,000 organizations worldwide.

Final Key Takeaway: The Future is Hybrid

Successful DevTool companies balance developer-first motions with targeted sales strategies. Developers may discover your product, but revenue comes from engaging the right decision-makers at the right time.

Key Takeaways from Snyk’s Playbook:

1. Developers Hold Power
Learning: In modern times, developers play a critical role in decision-making. Rarely will tech leaders buy a tool without consulting their developers. Dev adoption is foundational to building credibility and easing implementation.

Best Practices:

• Engage Early: Provide developer-friendly tools (SDKs, APIs) & easy onboarding.
• Build Communities: Host forums, events, and hackathons to foster advocacy.
• Enhance DevX: Focus on documentation, quick-start guides, and user-friendly interfaces.
• Hire DevRel: Use Developer Evangelists to create meaningful connections and provide support.

2. Know Your Users
Learning: Offering a free product is great, but not knowing your users is a missed opportunity. Tracking users and their behavior isn’t just good business—it’s essential. Set up mechanisms to identify your users and gather insights. This data helps prioritize outreach, optimize resources, and uncover revenue opportunities.

Best Practices:

• Track Usage: Use analytics tools to monitor user behavior and product engagement.
• Simplify Sign-Ups: Collect basic info like roles and company names during sign-ups.
• CRM Integration: Combine usage data with CRM for detailed personas.

3. Developers ≠ Buyers
Learning: Developer adoption is not equal to purchasing power. DevTool companies must have a hybrid GTM motion that combines bottom-up (developer-focused) and top-down (buyer-focused) approaches that work best for sustainable growth.

Best Practices: 

• Map Personas: Understand both developer and buyer pain points.
• Tailor Messaging: Customize messaging for technical (developers) and business (buyers) value.
• Enable Advocacy: Equip developers with materials to influence decision-makers.
• Align Teams: Sync DevRel, sales, and product teams for cohesive efforts.

4. Invest in Intent Signals
Learning: Intent signals from developer activity (e.g., product usage, GitHub engagement) are game-changers for spotting high-potential accounts. They help prioritize outreach to the right companies and decision-makers, speeding up sales cycles.

Best Practices:

• Track Activity: Monitor usage, GitHub, and forum engagement.
• Use Intent Data Tools: Leverage platforms for lead insights.
• Lead Scoring: Prioritize accounts based on developer actions.
• Refine Regularly: Continuously optimize scoring models.

5. Build a Targeted Sales Outreach Model
Learning: Organic developer adoption is just the starting point. A robust, insight-driven sales outreach is essential for converting engaged users into revenue-generating partnerships.

Best Practices:

• Leverage Insights: Use data from intent signals for tailored messaging.
• Value-Driven Approach: Focus on solving specific problems, not just pitching.

How Reo.Dev Can Help You Build a Winning Go-To-Market Strategy

We are helping 100+ companies set up a GTM motion similar to Snyk. 

We empower developer tool companies with actionable revenue intelligence, enabling them to identify high-intent users and optimize their go-to-market strategies.

Reo.Dev ensures you never lose out by:
✅ Identifying intent signals across your entire ecosystem: From GitHub interactions to package installs, track what matters.
✅ Triangulating the hottest accounts: Pinpoint where serious evaluation is happening, not just casual experimentation.
✅ Equipping your sales teams with precision insights: Align outreach with the right stage—exploration or evaluation—to close deals faster.

🚨 Don’t let hidden opportunities pass you by. Let Reo.Dev uncover the next Snyk-like growth for your business.

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