Guy Podjarny, founder of Snyk, discusses how the 'minimum unit of value' dictates why developer tools require bottom-up product adoption while security tools require top-down sales.
“For security, it's governance. So it's probably like a business unit, minimum unit. But for developers, because of that single developer and because developers are more empowered, DevTools generally win bottom up. You have to win over the developer first.”
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More from Guy Podjarny
Insight
To win developers in security, founders must build a devtool company
“If you want to get developers to use a security product, you have to build a developer tooling company not a security company.”
Guy PodjarnyOct 27, 2025▶ 13:17He burned $4M to hit $100K ARR—but with 1 big change, he grew to $4.5M ARR in just 12 months. | G... · PMF Show
PredictionNot checkable as stated
AI will shift software development from being code-centric to spec-centric
“So TESL, we believe that software in the AI world, software will move from being code-centric to being spec-centric.”
Guy PodjarnyOct 27, 2025▶ 40:41He burned $4M to hit $100K ARR—but with 1 big change, he grew to $4.5M ARR in just 12 months. | G... · PMF Show
Insight
A VC-backed founder's worst case is getting stuck at $2M-$3M ARR
“The kind of worst case scenario is not to get to crash and burn with your company, but to get stuck, to get to a company that it's at two million RR, three million RR, growing 30% year on year. It's kind of enough that you don't really want to just cut loose a…”
Guy PodjarnyOct 27, 2025▶ 49:39He burned $4M to hit $100K ARR—but with 1 big change, he grew to $4.5M ARR in just 12 months. | G... · PMF Show
Disclosure
a16z and others passed on Snyk's seed because it lacked revenue
“I got to, like, you know, ask me for the partner meeting, stay over the weekend in Andreessen Horowitz to sort of present to, and nobody converted. And everybody basically peeked behind the curtains, saw there's no revenue, says, oh, classic DevTool.”
Guy PodjarnyOct 27, 2025▶ 34:24He burned $4M to hit $100K ARR—but with 1 big change, he grew to $4.5M ARR in just 12 months. | G... · PMF Show
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Snyk burned $4M to hit $100K ARR, reaching $19M 2.5 years later
“That was like two years and two months in, we were at a 100,000 ARR not awesome. And we burned four million dollars by that time. You know, four months later, we're at six 50. A year later, we're at four and a half million. A year later, we're at nineteen mill…”
Guy PodjarnyOct 27, 2025▶ 37:07He burned $4M to hit $100K ARR—but with 1 big change, he grew to $4.5M ARR in just 12 months. | G... · PMF Show
AssertionSupported
75% of attacks target apps, but get under 25% of security budgets
“75% of the attacks and hacks happen at the application layer, but 25% of the budget or the investment happens over there, and that's probably generous.”
Guy PodjarnyOct 27, 2025▶ 9:23He burned $4M to hit $100K ARR—but with 1 big change, he grew to $4.5M ARR in just 12 months. | G... · PMF Show
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