Business Model Canvas Example Calendly
Nick Himo - 24.10.2024
Calendly grew from zero to $3 billion dollars in under 10 years.
That’s in large part thanks to their business model.
I spent the last 30 days studying it.
Here’s what I learned.
Lesson 1: Solve a painful problem
Calendly's success started with a laser focus on a specific group: sales executives.
Sales teams have a big challenge.
They need to schedule a massive amount of meetings each week.
It’s a process that typically involves an exhausting back-and-forth exchange of emails.
They want scheduling meetings to be quick and easy so they have more time to focus on what matters, finding more sales opportunities and hitting their sales goals.
This problem keeps sales teams up at night!
If you don’t solve a painful problem for your customers, you’ll struggle to get their attention.
Once you know who your target customer is and what problem you’re solving, you’re ready for the second step.
Lesson 2: Create a clear value proposition
A strong value proposition is key, and Calendly kept it simple: schedule meetings without the hassle.
By providing an event booking link, Calendly saved sales teams hours every week.
The value was crystal clear—less time managing appointments and more time achieving business goals
Remember: Your value proposition needs to directly address that customer pain point.
Using the Value Proposition Canvas by Strategyzer can help you match your products features, capabilities and benefits with your customer’s wants and needs.
Lesson 3: Make the product your main customer acquisition channel
Here's where Calendly's strategy gets really interesting.
They didn't rely on big marketing campaigns.
Instead, they made the product itself the engine of growth.
When someone sends a Calendly link to schedule a meeting, the recipient tries it too.
If they like it, they start using Calendly and send their own links. This natural virality created a growth loop where one user brought in another, leading to monumental user growth—with about 90% of users discovering the product through someone else.
Customers do their marketing for them.
As a result, Calendly kept customer acquisition costs low.
Imagine if you could create this type of effect in your business.
You wouldn’t need to spend so much money on ads!
Lesson 4: Make the product self-service
Automation played a key role in Calendly's scalability.
Everything—from account creation to onboarding to scheduling—is self-service.
This not only enabled the company to keep a small support team but also allowed them to keep their costs low.
Lesson 5: Offer a free version to drive adoption
Offering a free plan was a genius move.
Even though Tope Awotona, (Calendly, Founder & CEO) admits that they had no other choice but to offer the product for free in the beginning because they ran out of money to pay the engineers to add payment support!
It made it easy for users to try Calendly, fall in love with the value it provided, and then upgrade to paid plans for added functionality.
There was no ecuse not to try it. It’s free!
The combination of a free plan and automation is what allowed Calendly to scale to over 20 million users.
Step 6: Build a strong brand
Much like people say "Google it" or "Hoover" instead of "vacuum", people now say, "send me your Calendly,"
By consistently delivering value, Calendly created a brand that's synonymous with easy scheduling—making it tougher for competitors to keep up.
Calendly's Business Model Pattern
What ties all these steps together is a product-led growth strategy.
Calendly let the product speak for itself.
The combination of targeting a specific pain point, delivering immediate value, fostering virality, and automating as much as possible led to incredible growth—scaling to over 20 million users with minimal marketing spend.
I like to think of this as the product-led growth business model pattern.
It’s based on the Channel Kings business model pattern from the book The Invincible Company by Alex Osterwalder.
Try applying it to your company.
You don’t need to copy it exactly.
Use it as inspiration and make it your own.
Some aspects will work for you and others might not.
Start with exploring the basic pattern, and who knows?
You could be on your way to building the next billion-dollar business.
Watch this video next:
The REAL Reason Calendly is a $3 Billion Business
About the Author
My name is Nick Himo. I’ve spent the last 10 years helping organisations understand and apply the Business Model Canvas. I’ve worked with companies like Google, American Express, Lego and Novo Nordisk. I was also fortunate enough to spend 3 years working alongside the inventor of the Business Model Canvas, Alex Osterwalder, at Strategyzer.
If you would like help to map out your Business Model Canvas, set up a strategy call with me or send me a message below.
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