Lessons from Scaling Braze

Session Overview

Braze’s success was not driven by rapid growth but by disciplined scaling at the right time. Bill prioritized long-term enterprise adoption, market education, and category creation, all while maintaining financial discipline and avoiding hype-driven spending. Rather than rushing to scale, he deliberately waited until both the market and product were ready. As a result, it took nearly six years for Braze to reach $20M ARR. Once the foundation was set, growth accelerated—reaching $100M ARR in just three years and $600M ARR within the next five years. The session takeaways will cover Bill’s focus on market timing, category creation, and moving upmarket—all while maintaining financial discipline and resisting hype-driven spending.

1. Market Timing—Playing the Long Game to Align your Growth with Market Maturity

Bill co-founded Braze with two core convictions: first, that massive businesses would be built on mobile, and second, that mobile’s widespread adoption would fundamentally reshape how businesses operated. However, he and his team quickly realized they were early. Mobile-first business models were not yet fully developed, and consumer behaviors were still evolving. Rather than scaling prematurely, Bill had to develop the market alongside Braze, ensuring Braze would be positioned to capitalize when businesses on mobile started to scale.

“We saw competitors raising tons of money and expanding prematurely. But we knew the real inflection point would come when mobile businesses transitioned from app downloads to sustainable revenue.”

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Insight: Index your Business on the Durable Drivers, not the Vanity Metrics in your Market

• Don’t Chase Early Metrics: In the early days of mobile, the number of smartphone users and apps in the store skyrocketed, but most of those businesses on the app store weren’t sustainable and would not have been great customers. As an example, Braze signed several Enterprise deals early in the market’s development only for these customers to churn when the “innovation projects” didn’t work.
• Don’t invest ahead of your market: Braze’s competitors burned out because they raised too much capital too early and spent ahead of market readiness chasing new logos and revenue. Braze, on the other hand, focused increasingly on serving “sustainable” mobile businesses that they knew would compound over time
• Anchor on Second-Order Effects: Bill and team Identified the “lagging indicators” that mattered—e.g., Braze didn’t focus on app downloads but on app revenue growth as the sign that businesses were becoming viable and would need marketing and customer engagement tools.

Insight: When your Market is Underdeveloped, Shape the Market

• Early mobile businesses were developer-led, so Braze positioned itself as an SDK for developers, focusing on customer engagement tools. As mobile businesses matured and adopted subscription models and engagement metrics, Braze transitioned its focus to marketers and growth teams within enterprise companies.
• Braze expanded its TAM sustainably by embedding its platform into marketing best practices and positioning it as a career accelerator. The more practitioners who adopted Braze’s approach, the larger its market became—and the smaller the opportunity for competitors.
• Braze developed certification programs, training events, and online coursework, turning its platform into a standard for sophisticated marketers. Over time, Braze certification became a status symbol, much like Workday and Salesforce for HR and sales professionals.
• Braze is considering exploring university partnerships to train the next generation of marketers—similar to how Adobe built an education practice to develop the next wave of creative professionals.

Insight: Position your Company to Bet on the Right Side of History

• While competitors built hardware ID tracking, ad-based targeting, and data mining, Braze stayed away—despite strong customer demand for these products. Braze believed platforms would eventually shut down privacy-invasive approaches, making them an unsustainable foundation for growth. Instead of chasing quick wins, they invested in privacy-compliant, first-party data solutions that would endure regulatory and platform shifts.
• When Apple and other platforms cracked down on third-party tracking, competitors scrambled to rebuild—Braze didn’t have to. By staying ahead of the curve, Braze had a bulletproof story for enterprises seeking sustainable, future-proof technology. Their long-term bet on privacy gave them a structural competitive advantage—one that couldn’t be easily copied once the market shifted.
• Ignore the temptation to chase short-term revenue if it is fundamentally misaligned with where the market is headed. Instead, win in the long run by aligning with where platforms, regulations, and customer expectations are headed—not where they are today. 

Insight: Burn is Sticky—Align Capital with Market Readiness

• High spending is easy to start but hard to stop. Companies that over-hire or over-spend struggle to course-correct. Rather than raising as much capital as possible and rushing to deploy it, Braze raised conservatively to match market maturity. Braze maintained tight discipline on capital efficiency. By the time of its IPO, it had only burned $170M to reach $250M ARR. 
• Competitors that raised large rounds too early expanded into adjacent markets prematurely, diluting focus. When the mobile economy matured, Braze was the only company still laser-focused on its core opportunity.

Insight: Proactively Address Anxiety Amongst Employees 

• Braze took six years to reach $20M ARR before it hit hyper-growth. During this period, team anxiety was high—competitors raised huge rounds, and employees feared Braze was falling behind. The biggest risk wasn’t just external—it was internal doubt, rumors, and lack of alignment.
• Bill developed a system to uncover anxiety before it spread. He would regularly ask his leaders:
  
  • “What’s the craziest rumor you’ve heard lately?”
  • “What’s stressing people out that they aren’t saying out loud?”
• He would preemptively address these concerns in all hands and in other public forums with the team

2. Scaling GTM—Your Customer Segment Shapes Your Product and Go-To-Market Strategy

In Braze’s early days, enterprise sales were a trap. Large brands built mobile “innovation labs” but didn’t integrate them into their core business. By ~2015, enterprises were moving beyond ‘innovation labs’ and embedding mobile engagement into their core business. Braze recognized this shift before competitors and positioned itself as an enterprise-grade product before anyone else. This was a “crucible decision” for the company and set the company apart from its well-funded venture-backed peers.

“We saw early signs that enterprises weren’t just dabbling in mobile—they were shifting their entire engagement strategy. We made sure we were ready before they got there.”

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Insight: Moving Upmarket Requires Deliberate Investment—Invest 12+ Months Ahead of Expansion

• While competitors optimized for short sales cycles and quick logo wins, Braze made the conscious decision to move upmarket early (~$12M ARR) once they saw signs of enterprise readiness
• Enterprise sales cycles were longer, required more process, and felt “slower” than startup deals—but they were far more durable. Bill felt if they could crack Enterprise, they would have a durable moat 
  
  • Why? Instead of convincing a startup why retention mattered, Braze sold to Domino’s Pizza, which already had a CRM team using Salesforce and would expand meaningfully over time
• Braze built enterprise features before most enterprise buyers had fully adopted mobile engagement:
  
  • Security & compliance infrastructure (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR readiness).
  • Approval workflows and role-based access for complex teams.
  • Multi-business unit support for large global brands.

Insight: Support Isn’t a Cost Center—It’s a Competitive Advantage and Monetizable

• Many startups treat support as a cost to minimize, prioritizing automation and deflection.
• Instead, Braze viewed support as a growth driver, ensuring customers got platform value fast 
• Unlike competitors who bundled in support for free, Braze monetized it—charging for onboarding, training, and advanced support plans. This became especially critical as Braze moved upmarket, where enterprise customers expect high-touch service and dedicated support.
• In Bill’s experience, CFOs don’t see support as an add-on; they expect to pay for it, just like implementation and professional services.
  
  • In enterprise deals, support costs are often budgeted separately from software licensing fees, making it easier to justify as an operational necessity rather than a discretionary expense.
  • Companies buying platforms like NetSuite, SAP, or Salesforce routinely spend 3-5x their software cost on implementation and ongoing support.

3. Building a High-Performance Enterprise Team

Moving upmarket requires more than just selling bigger deals—it demands the right leadership, a disciplined sales culture, and a fully aligned go-to-market motion. Braze made deliberate decisions to hire for cultural fit and to commit 100% to enterprise. Unlike competitors chasing startup adoption, Braze skipped the long tail and went for enterprise buyers who could grow with them.

Insight: Your GTM Leader Matters. If You Get it Wrong, Fire Fast and Try Again

• Braze initially hired a VP of Sales who focused on activity tracking (calls, emails) instead of building a strong GTM motion. The board suggested giving him a full quarter, but Bill fired him early to protect the culture. After the misstep, Braze worked with Daversa Partners to refine the GTM leadership profile.

• They pursued Myles, a sales leader at BuddyMedia (acquired by Salesforce), a perfect culture fit with deep enterprise GTM expertise. The challenge? Myles was burnt out on B2B SaaS.
• Braze leaned in hard:
  
  • Visited his home to sell him on the vision.
  • Made the case for why this was the right move, at the right time.
  • Offered 2.5% equity to align incentives.
• Outcome: Myles joined, built the GTM team from scratch, and drove Braze’s enterprise expansion.

Insight: Enterprise Selling Requires Persistence and the Right Culture

• Enterprise selling isn’t just about great product—it’s about finding the right champion, persistence, and proving undeniable value. To instill this mindset, Myles built a sales culture from the ground up:
  
  • No remote AEs at first—Everyone was in NYC to foster collaboration and maintain standards.
  • Slow, methodical expansion—Braze didn’t open GTM offices until the playbook was repeatable.
  • BDRs as a talent pipeline—Top BDRs were promoted into AE roles, ensuring consistency

Insight: Align GTM, Product, and Support for Enterprise Selling

• Selling to large enterprises requires 100% commitment. Everything must speak to the enterprise buyer.
• Key shifts Braze made to speak to enterprise buyers:
  
  • No self-serve product.
  • No pricing on the website.
  • Demo-driven sales motion.
  • Enterprise-grade documentation & support.
  • Sales trained on procurement & multi-stakeholder management.
• Braze also built an ecosystem of early customers and turned them into selling agents
  
  • Enterprise customers care deeply about references making case studies critical to success
• While 100% commitment is required, you need to be flexible to find and expand your TAM
  
  • Braze missed the Shopify ecosystem, where players like Klaviyo and Attentive scaled massively in SMS and email because they perceived Shopify as long-tail. The reality is Braze later had to invest in mid-market and they shouldn’t have totally organized this ecosystem

4. Culture at Braze

Insight: “Don’t Ignore the Smoke”—A Braze Value

The Principle:

• Problems don’t start as full-blown crises—they start as small warning signs (“smoke”) that many teams ignore until it’s too late. High-performing companies act on early signals before they turn into fires.
• “Don’t Ignore the Smoke” codifies the idea that employees should act on warning signs

Key Lessons:

• The principle encourages employees to act with urgency on early signs of problems
  
  • Example: If a customer report looks off, investigate before complaints pile up.
• Reward employees who proactively identify risks and make it easy to report problems (e.g., Slack)
  
  • Example: Braze encouraged teams to report issues in Slack, Risk Reviews, and Weekly AMAs
• Once identified, solve the root cause. Braze avoided several outages due to this principle

Insight: Don’t Scale Teams Before Good Leaders Are in Place

The Principle:

• Bad hires at the leadership level compound as a leader builds out their team. Do not grow a team until you have the right leader or frontline manager in place. While this slows down team growth, it reduces cultural drift and prevents unnecessary people bloat 

Key Lessons:

• Bill worked at Bridgewater Associates during a period of rapid growth (from a few hundred to 1,500 employees). He observed that scaling too quickly led to a deterioration of culture, particularly when managers were hired too fast and allowed to build entire teams before proving their fit. When those managers were later fired, their hired teams remained, leading to cultural drift. This drove him to adopt the principle of hiring only when leadership was in place

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