How This Startup Achieved 7,000+ Users With Figma
Today, we’re diving into Pathway, a startup executing a strategy par excellence by meeting users exactly where they already are.
Hey there,
Hope everyone’s doing well and growing.
Welcome to Growth Bites — your 1-minute growth hack.
Today, we’re diving into a super cool hack from a startup called Pathway.
The startup describes itself as "helping create better user experiences, gaining insights faster, and involving teams in the research process.”
In essence, it’s a solution tailored for research and product design teams, enabling them to test the UX of a product with an external peer group. In simple words, you can gather user feedback for your solution without having to go through the hassle of manually asking them for help.
And Pathway is a prime example of the strategy: “Go where your target audience is.”
Go Where Your Target Audience Is
When I first looked into Pathway, I couldn’t find a clear acquisition channel.
They had some content marketing, a few social media posts, and some word-of-mouth from customers. Nothing that, at first glance, seemed to drive massive traffic.
But when I dug deeper, I found where they struck gold.
Their solution is listed in the Figma plugin store, and the plugin indicates it is used by over 7,000 users.
This is a brilliant example of: “Go where your target audience lives.”
By positioning themselves in the Figma plugin store, Pathway puts their solution directly in front of product designers and teams—exactly the people who would benefit most from their tool.
💡 As this study shows, Figma had over 4 million users in 2024, and 75% of product designers in 2023 saw Figma as the primary choice of software for UI design according to one survey.
These numbers show that they have tapped into a massive pool of their target audience.
How to Create an Easy Funnel Entry
Clicking on the Pathway plugin within Figma, you can select which of your Figma files you’d like to test.
Once selected, you’re taken to an overview with detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to use it.
After following the first step, I am directed to the website pthwy.design. There, I can log in (the site is in Russian, but Google Translate helps). With a click of the call to action, I can create an account to complete my test.
Once logged in, the tool makes it easy to set up a test for my Figma prototype.
After creating the test, I can share the link with my peer group. Pathway gathers the results by capturing screen recordings, providing analytics, and allowing me to ask questions during the test.
It’s a simple and straightforward way to bring people into the funnel.
What This Growth Tactic Looks Like in Numbers
As of today, the Figma plugin shows 7,100 users.
But when does Figma count a “user”?
I couldn't really find an answer to that, but I assume it's when you click "run" on the plugin in your Figma file.
If that's correct, 7,100 people have run this plugin in their Figma files.
But the thing is, before you can really use it, you must create an account and set up the test within their tool. This means you have to leave Figma and have to take the extra step of creating an account.
From my experience, such additional steps cause a loss of about 40-50% of potential users.
Considering this, we still have around 3,500 users who created and account and a test in Figma.
Now, Pathway has the following pricing model:
Pathway's "test" allows users to try various things like asking questions, running click tests, A/B tests, and more in one prototype.
I’m not sure if three tests are a lot in the product design world. However, 250 responses across three tests might not be enough to get reliable insights into what works and what doesn’t.
And in my experience, product teams are usually more than one person and work collaboratively.
This all increases the likelihood that Pathway's upsell strategy is effective.
Looking at the 3,500 active users, let’s assume an average conversion rate of 3%. That gives us 105 paying users. If we multiply that by $175/month (excluding enterprise plans), the monthly revenue would be around $18,500.
Probably the actual revenue is much higher since these calculations are conservative and only consider the Figma plugin.
Means, this growth strategy seems pretty effective.
Final Words
Pathway has built its solution exactly where its target audience lives, creating a seamless and accessible entry point for their product.
This approach is a tactic that you can replicate for your startup with ease.
Many tools like Figma offer a place for third-party plugins or another strategy that falls in the same category is creating complementary products (which we cover in one of the next issues) - but this way you can simplify the path for users to engage with your solution.
If you want to follow this strategy, the key is ensuring the process is as seamless as possible. The easier it is for users to get started, the better.
Pathway’s focus on simplicity is a major win and a great example of how to lower the barrier to entry for customers.