Xano’s Playbook for Moving Upmarket: Converting Enterprise CIOs from ‘No-Code, No Way’ to ‘Yes’

“No code, no way.” It’s a response that strikes fear into the heart of any no-code platform founder targeting enterprise customers. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Xano founder Prakash Chandran revealed how they turned this knee-jerk rejection into a growth opportunity, building a platform now used by over 40,000 developers.

The Enterprise Mindset Shift

“It’s like a cultural objection that I think we have to overcome in that some CIOs and people within IT will say no code, no way,” Prakash explained. But rather than trying to fight this skepticism head-on, Xano took a more nuanced approach to enterprise adoption.

The key was understanding that enterprise resistance wasn’t just about technical capabilities – it was about trust and control. As Prakash noted, the challenge was “how do you get them to see a new world of possibilities in enabling their stakeholders or their product owners to build software under their supervision?”

Product Focus as GTM Strategy

Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, Xano made a crucial strategic decision. “We’re not trying to boil the ocean and build a complete product,” Prakash emphasized. By focusing specifically on backend development, they could address enterprise concerns about scalability and security more effectively than general-purpose no-code tools.

“We want to be the best possible back end for people to build on,” Prakash explained. This focus helped them “separate ourselves and be taken more seriously, even by traditional developers.”

The Third-Party Validation Strategy

Rather than relying solely on direct sales, Xano leveraged third-party validation strategically. “For better or for worse, I’m not like a huge G2 subscriber, but there’s a lot of organizations that go there to basically compare one tool against the other,” Prakash shared. They found that even “larger enterprise organizations that have more potentially legacy CIOs will use that as a tool to just verify that you are liked in the market.”

This insight led to a systematic approach to collecting and showcasing user reviews, creating social proof that helped overcome initial skepticism.

Data-Driven Messaging Evolution

To refine their enterprise messaging, Xano implemented the Sean Ellis product-market fit survey methodology. “We also used the tool to basically collate and aggregate all of those answers. And then you see what the users are saying about your product,” Prakash explained. This helped them identify that scalability, security, and compliance were the key concerns they needed to address.

The Education-First Approach

Rather than pushing traditional enterprise marketing, Xano invested heavily in education. “Very early on we have, especially being the type of tool that we are, we’ve made it really easy and accessible for people to find us and find success using the product by producing YouTube content,” Prakash shared. This approach helped demonstrate their technical credibility while building trust with potential enterprise users.

The Analyst Relations Strategy

Looking ahead, Xano is taking a measured approach to analyst relations. “I think Gartner and Forrester are definitely relevant, especially as we start going more upmarket,” Prakash noted. “But I don’t necessarily think that we’ve earned a place there yet, or kind of like earned our place in one of the quadrants.”

This patience reflects a broader philosophy about moving upmarket: “We’ve been really capital efficient. We’ve really been engaged with our customers, and we’ve taken things slow,” Prakash reflected. “And we kind of always sought the truth in whatever decisions that we made.”

For B2B founders looking to move upmarket with innovative technology, Xano’s experience offers a valuable lesson: sometimes the best way to overcome skepticism isn’t to fight it, but to systematically address its underlying causes through focus, validation, and education. Their mission “to empower the world to create scalable, world class software” isn’t just marketing – it’s a strategic framework for earning enterprise trust.