“How I Screwed Up Sales-Led Growth" - Kevin Busque (Guideline, TaskRabbit)
Product-market fit can become a trap. Guideline's founder built a product so good that 60-70% of deals closed without sales — until competitors started outselling him. Learn why the best product doesn't always win.
What happens when product-market fit becomes your biggest blind spot?
Kevin Busque is the CEO and co-founder of Guideline, a 401k platform serving over 60,000 small businesses. A serial entrepreneur who previously founded Taskrabbit, Kevin launched Guideline in 2016 to bring modern technology to the antiquated retirement benefits industry.
When it came to growing his company, Kevin believed the best product would always win. "I just thought I could keep growing this animal the best way I knew how, and that was with superior product," Kevin says. His approach seemed flawless. Product-led growth was working beautifully — low CAC, high LTV, and 60-70% of deals closing without customers ever talking to a salesperson.
But product-market fit can become a trap. While Kevin obsessed over building the perfect mousetrap, competitors with inferior products were outselling him. Kevin spent six years convinced that sales was unnecessary, until he finally looked at competitive data in Salesforce and discovered the harsh truth: they were being "sold around" before prospects even saw their superior product.
If we had embraced sales-led growth earlier in Guideline's history, there's no doubt in my mind that we would be double the size that we are now.
Kevin Busque
Founder and CEO at Guideline
After learning this lesson, Kevin shares the hard-won insights from transforming an engineering-first company into a sales powerhouse without losing their product DNA.
Here's a sneak peek of what's inside:
The specific moment Kevin knew PLG had hit its ceiling at Guideline
The unexpected challenges of integrating commission-based salespeople into a salary-only culture (and the tactics he leaned on to build through it)
The real sales metrics Guideline tracks that helped it double its win rates
If you're convinced that "build it and they will come" is enough, or if you've been resistant to adding sales because it feels unnecessary or goes against your engineering instincts, this episode will challenge everything you think you know about sustainable growth.
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