ScaleUp Milestone Series – WalkMe’s IPO

Widely recognized as a fast-growing tech hub, Israel and its technology companies are prime for global expansion. Commonly known as the “Startup Nation,” Israeli companies are now scaling. These growth-stage ScaleUps are building software and technology to provide better security, stronger analytics, enhanced workflow, and business efficiency to their customers and target users. As the Israeli tech ecosystem has transformed and companies are now succeeding on a global stage, Insight is proud to have partnered with many of these companies and category winners. 

One of those ScaleUps, WalkMe, a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP), and an Insight investment since 2016, completed the next phase of its ScaleUp journey – an IPO on the Nasdaq. Given the pace of change in software in our new digital world, traditional training and adoption techniques are no longer relevant. Just like Google Maps changed the game for navigation, the WalkMe Digital Adoption Platform provides the same capability for software by removing training as a barrier to agility. At Insight, we have utilized WalkMe’s platform to announce new firmwide software and as a resource for employees seeking assistance with “everyday” technology applications. WalkMe completes the adoption puzzle by providing real-time analytics on user adoption so that gaps in adoption and capability can be addressed in real time, without the need for any changes to the underlying code.

With over 900 employees, around 2,000 global customers with 31% being of the Fortune 500, and 35M users in over 42 countries, WalkMe is harnessing the power of technology to transform human productivity. From our initial investment in 2016, Insight is proud to have played a role in WalkMe’s scaling success. With the company completing their IPO on the Nasdaq, we want to provide a glimpse into the work we’ve done together and congratulate Dan, Rafi, and team on this exciting ScaleUp Milestone.

Creating a Category 

One of the biggest challenges WalkMe faced during the scaling process was not having defined the process for building a “category.” Although WalkMe has created a new breed of technology, without the market recognition of an established category, there was a need for market education in WalkMe’s strategy. Establishing a category is one of the critical ways for new players, solving new challenges, cement their market position and build an ecosystem around the technology they have pioneered. Therefore, in order to increase the adoption of WalkMe’s product and grow brand awareness, category creation was going to be instrumental in WalkMe’s ongoing strategy.

Through their roles as former operators and software executives, Insight’s Marketing Center of Excellence (COE) had seen this before. They had seen many organizations grapple with the same problem – clearly articulating their place in the market. The Marketing COE sought to act as a trusted advisor in WalkMe’s category development.

In order to accomplish this goal, the Marketing COE leveraged a "Category Activator Session" to drive a category creation process at Walkme, which included: 

1. An Acceleration session with the entire WalkMe executive team and leaders from marketing, sales, and product. It was important for not just marketing to be present, but leaders from across the organization so the entire organization was part of the process.
2. Next up was developing a point of view (POV). What exactly is a POV? “The story of why you are different, the problem you solve, and why it matters to your target audience.” And what makes a good POV? A few examples:
   1. Focus on why the company is different - not better
   2. Reach people on an emotional level
   3. Simple and digestible within 10 minutes 
3. Lastly, it was helping WalkMe craft the plan to bring this story to life. 

Following our work together, the category became a reality. Gartner recognized “Digital Adoption Solutions” as a new category that is focused on improving the adoption of multiple tools across an entire organization. Now DAS is a widely known category of enterprise software with huge potential to revolutionize the way people live, work, and do business.

Customer Growth Acceleration via Insight IGNITE 

Insight IGNITE, Insight’s digital acceleration program, delivers digital business insights and relevant technology solutions to large global companies. IGNITE works exclusively with C-level enterprise leaders by supplementing their digital strategy and curating bespoke introductions to the worlds' most innovative technologies.

Through IGNITE, WalkMe built relationships with Enterprise leaders that influenced key introductions to global business leaders and successful partnerships. WalkMe met with over 150 global companies, attended over 20 C-level networking events, and participated in 40 topic-driven Innovation Briefings with G2000 companies. 

WalkMe seeks to change the way people use technology, and its IPO is the next step to making this goal a reality. As investors, we are thrilled to have partnered with the WalkMe team and are excited to watch them continue to achieve ScaleUp Milestones.

Gary Survis Operating Partner More By The Author