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Digital Walls

Digital bulletin boards for users to generate and share content, with flexible layouts.

Multi-Modal Content

Seamless support for adding anything you find online onto Padlet.

Real-time Collaboration

Established niche in classroom activity. Teachers love Padlet for engaging students in class.

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After 10 years of Product-Led Growth (PLG), Padlet now has to decide the right path forward to scale sales with a small and nascent sales team. It needs to decide on a strategy to scale past consecutive quarters of stagnant revenue growth post-COVID

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Originally from Lucknow, India

Studied Computer Engineering @ NUS

NOC SV Alum!

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Goel's honors thesis in 2008 -> exploring new UI for Human-Computer Interaction

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The Unlikely Company: Side project to YCombinator 

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The Unlikely Company: Side project to YCombinator 

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Startup-Up Chile

Summer of 2012 Cohort

Non-equity Funding

Y Combinator Batch 13 (2013)

$100,000 in Pre-Seed

3 months accelerator

Seed round (2015)

Closed $1.2 million USD (Seed)

Series A (2019)

$11 million USD

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Investor scepticism within the EdTech space

Fundraising challenges as first-time founder with limited networks

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Mobile Expansion

iOS in 2015 and Android in 2016. This was key to Padlet breaking into classrooms and making padlet usable by students and not just teachers

Monetization

Freemium model, first introduced in 2018

Usage boom during COVID-19

80million MAU at its peak.

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K-12 & Higher Ed

Unique niche from Day 1.

Not easy to break into education -> double down to deepen our moat in the sector

Professional Development

Workforce training, HR

Creatives

Creative agencies, startups use Padlet to document and share ideas.

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Tiered Freemium Subscription

Separate pricing for individual teachers, teams, schools (enterprise)

Distribution

Close 50/50 revenue split between personal (b2c) plans and schools (b2b) plans as of the time of this case

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Post-pandemic, revenue growth stagnated (and consistently decreased) for 6 consecutive quarters

The company has grown significantly during the pandemic both in org headcount and features. Not feasible to scale down.

Scaling revenue is the only answer.

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Uniquely sticky product has helped Padlet scale in its first decade with minimal advertising and no sales team.

Engrained a culture of product-first approach to distribution.

Frequent appearances at various Education conferences across the world -> platform to share the product directly with educators and get feedback

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"We would do everything if we had the resources, but we need to prioritize" - Bryan Chong

Given a small sales team with limited resources and urgent need to scale revenue, should Padlet...

Double down on conferences

Focus on building more scalable sales funnel

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Corporate Heavyweights

Key Example: Miro

Their Core Advantage: Features & Power. An all-in-one enterprise solution.

Our Opportunity: Their complexity is our opening. We win on simplicity.

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Platform Giants

Key Examples: Google, Microsoft, Figma for Education

Their Core Advantage: Distribution & Price. Ubiquitous and free within their ecosystems.

Our Opportunity: Their "good enough" experience is our advantage. We win on delight & quality with teacher-focused features

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"Padlet Clones"

Key Examples: TaskCards, Wakelet, LoiLoNote, QuizN

Their Core Advantage: Focus & Niche. Hyper-focused on specific users and use cases in specific geographies.

Our Opportunity: Maintain our dominant market position. Learn from them to break into the respective markets

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Strengths

Strong brand trust and educator loyalty (“cult-like” following).

Simple, intuitive UX driving viral classroom adoption

Uniquely sticky product with strong product-market fit for educators

Weaknesses

No formal sales infrastructure before recent hires

Manual, unclear upgrade path from freemium to enterprise

Lack of scalable, repeatable growth systems

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Opportunities

Global expansion via reseller/channel partnerships

Institutional sales: proven district-level demand

Threats

Rising competition targeting large contracts

Post-pandemic churn & shifting user behavior

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Option 1: Community-Led Strategy

"Double Down on Conferences"

Leverages Padlet’s brand love & teacher evangelists

Tactics: Conferences, teacher advocacy, feedback loops

Strength: Authentic, sticky grassroots growth

Proof: “Padlet for Schools” success via ground-up adoption

Goal: Professionalize what already works—better booths, systematic lead capture

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Option 2: Scalable Engine Strategy

"Build a Scalable Digital-First Funnel"

Focus: Direct outreach to B2B buyers (IT, Principals)

Tactics: LinkedIn ads, webinars, case studies, inside sales

Strength: Scalable, measurable, always-on engine

Goal: Address core GTM gaps with modern SaaS playbook