Company to incorporate new technology and launch a “Demos” product, meeting the need of software buyers to explore products prior to sign-up and engaging users post-sign-up
Chameleon, the deepest product adoption platform for modern software companies, announced that it has acquired the cutting-edge interactive demo company Driveway. The move enables Chameleon to expand into the interactive demo category and drive user onboarding via (existing) in-product and (new) ungated walkthroughs. Driveway Co-founder Harrison Johnson will join Chameleon as Product Lead, spearheading Driveway’s integration into the Chameleon platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Chameleon + Driveway will enable companies to show off new features inside their product as well as on websites, in help docs, across social media, and more, all through one integrated platform. — Chameleon Co-founder and CEO Pulkit Agrawal
“The future of software is more self-service, more product-centric, and more personalized, inside and outside the product,” said Chameleon Co-founder and CEO Pulkit Agrawal. “Chameleon + Driveway will enable companies to show off new features inside their product as well as on websites, in help docs, across social media, and more, all through one integrated platform.”
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The Future of Product Marketing
The move comes as technology buyers increasingly engage in their own product research before ever speaking to a provider. It is a product-led world where people want to try a product before committing to it. Simultaneously, companies need to be more efficient in their own GTM, so product-led sales have become a strategic priority. Interactive Demos, embedded on a marketing site, or in help docs, can be a great way to showcase key product features without users needing to sign up or log in. Organizations that offer quality, user-friendly interactive demos are able to remove hurdles and expedite sales.
As Gartner® noted in its 2023 Market Guide for Interactive Demonstration Applications, “These trends have created a perfect environment for interactive demonstration applications. As GTM technology serving marketing, sales, and other functional needs, interactive demonstration applications are sometimes referred to as demo automation applications. They provide a near-product experience to prospective buyers, without the need or complexity associated with the actual product behind them — with the exception of live product overlays, which replace the need for intricate or sensitive data and integrations.”
Chameleon recognized the benefits interactive demos could provide, having used them extensively for its own GTM approach, and saw a natural fit with its own platform that enables SaaS teams to build in-app UX patterns like banners, models, walkthroughs, cards, surveys, checklists, and more – all without coding. By adding an interactive demo component, the company can deliver an unparalleled experience that extends from a buyer’s initial engagement with a company’s website or app, through adoption, deployment, and beyond as the company adds new products and features they may want to highlight. This creates a single cohesive experience that users understand and appreciate. It is also an experience that users increasingly request.
“Customers are demanding more interactive and self-serve education; product demos combined with in-app interactive product tours unlock their ability to understand and adopt features, and consequently drive growth for our business,” noted Jeff Chase, Director of Product Marketing at Vitally, a long-time Chameleon user.
“Chameleon is my go-to platform for quickly testing and building intuitive user onboarding experiences. Being able to incorporate interactive demos unlocks a whole new dimension of in-product experiences to drive self-serve product adoption and growth,” added Saad Khan, Growth Product Manager at Fivetran.
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Why Driveway
Driveway presented an opportunity to meet better the expanding needs of the customers who already love Chameleon and use it regularly. Driveway enables users to easily capture and record key workflows in their products and then embed annotated versions of these in their marketing and help sites.
“Buyers increasingly want to see and play with the product before they ‘schedule a demo,’ so interactively showcasing product features on the marketing site is becoming the new standard for SaaS go-to-market,” said Johnson. “Driveway’s interactive demos combined with Chameleon’s platform for product adoption creates a must-have bundle for Product Marketing, Product-led Sales, and PLG.”
Driveway, backed by great product operators and investors, including Gradient Ventures, Lenny Rachitsky, Scott Belsky, Harry Stebbings, and Josh Elman, was built using a similar approach to Chameleon, making the acquisition seamless. Additionally, Driveway’s technology uses AI to help identify elements on the page, which will boost Chameleon’s ability to use page content to anchor and trigger in-app experiences.
Moving Forward
The acquisition comes amid a period of immense growth for Chameleon. Since its $13M Series A, Chameleon has increased Growth and Enterprise revenue by 5x. Customers like Salesloft, Domo, S&P Global, DHL, and Cisco have joined an impressive roster that includes Braze, Twilio, Mixpanel, and Drata. Chameleon has also expanded the capabilities of its HelpBar product to include navigation and AI-answers that customers can enable with a few clicks, as well as added more embedded patterns (Cards and Banners). The company now serves over 150 million end-users, and has delivered 400M end-user in-app experiences in the last few years.
Chameleon’s new “Demos” product, incorporating Driveway’s tech, will launch in Q3. In parallel, Chameleon will be launching an “Automations” feature that allows customers to record user onboarding journeys and re-play them on behalf of their end-users, to help overcome the ‘cold start problem.’ Driveway will continue to operate as a product and support its existing base of customers for the foreseeable future.