PLG Switch at $600K: The Six Months That Almost Broke It

This week's Wednesday episode (Week 21, 2026) features a B2B SaaS founder who entered the show at $600K ARR with a 74-day sales cycle, an 18-month CAC payback period, and no formal activation tracking — and left with a repeatable PLG motion that pushed NRR past 100% in six months. - Why three consecutive fix attempts — a pricing cut to $12K ACV, an 800-sequence outbound blitz, and a reseller partnership — all failed before the founder switched motions - How a PQL definition built backward from 18 months of closed-won data moved free-to-paid conversion from roughly 8% to over 25% - The three-bucket attribution rule that resolved a rep compensation dispute and kept the hybrid sales team intact during the PLG transition - Why activation rate climbed from 19% to 41% in four months, and what operational failures followed once the motion scaled Guest: Elena Reyes and Derek Simmons, hosts of ARR Autopsy, dissecting a real B2B SaaS growth case study with specific ARR, acquisition, and retention metrics.