For five years, Mailtrap was a free tool that grew slowly and organically through word-of-mouth in the developer community. This patient, community-led approach established deep-rooted trust and brand loyalty before monetization was ever considered. This foundation became a durable competitive advantage that well-funded competitors could not easily replicate.

The ultimate PLG companies are consumer brands like shampoo, which sell on brand affinity, not commoditized features. As software becomes more commoditized, B2B companies must similarly build a strong brand theme that inspires users to associate with them, creating a more durable moat than features alone.

To embody their 'do the right thing' culture, Arista proactively replaced a customer's potentially faulty hardware at its own expense. This decision, which could have led to bankruptcy, demonstrated a commitment to long-term trust over short-term financial stability and became a defining cultural moment.

When a brand consistently provides trustworthy, structured data, AI models begin to repeatedly select it, creating a 'durable memory' or powerful loyalty loop. This AI-mediated loyalty is potentially more persistent and 'stickier' than loyalty built through traditional advertising, which relies on constant reinforcement and larger budgets.

For a 150-year-old brand like ADT, the most valuable asset is user trust, which is hard to build and easy to lose. Therefore, every product investment must first be validated against its potential impact on that trust.

When a customer just misses a new promotion, don't enforce the cutoff date rigidly. Giving them the promotional item costs little but generates immense goodwill, turning a potential complaint into a story of exceptional customer service and creating a loyal advocate.

Instead of raising prices on its entire customer base, the company rewards its earliest adopters by letting them keep their original, deeply discounted price ($60-80/mo). This builds extreme loyalty, even as new customers pay 5-7x more ($400-500/mo) for the same platform.

Instead of offering a fixed lifetime price (e.g., "$10/month forever"), offer a percentage or dollar amount off the retail price. This allows you to raise your base prices in the future to account for inflation or added value, while still honoring the discount for loyal customers.

Clay demonstrated a radical commitment to brand from day one. The company purchased the premium domain clay.com and contracted a claymation artist—who charged a recurring "SaaS" fee for his art—all before the business had any meaningful revenue, embedding the brand deep into its DNA.