AllSpice: GitHub for Hardware Engineers

AllSpice, a software-as-a-service company that built a GitHub-like revision control tool for hardware engineers, was in the midst of preparing for rapid scale when the 2022 market downturn left them with big decisions to make. Cofounder and CEO Valentina Ratner had to map out the company’s path to a successful Series A while deciding on how they should dedicate their resources. Early customer discovery experiments showed that engineers had an interest in the product, but Ratner needed to figure out the go-to-market motion they should focus their effort on: a bottoms-up freemium model, a top-down enterprise model, or something in between that relied on targeting engineers directly through inside sales efforts. Leading into her April board meeting, Ratner devised a plan to share with her investors.