Elena Verna: A Leading Product-Led Growth Pioneer at Product Drive 2025

With over 15 years of experience in growth, product marketing, and analytics, Elena Verna, Head of Growth at Lovable and growth advisor to top-tier companies, has helped scale some of today’s most successful B2B businesses through innovative product-led strategies.

In this article, we’ll dive into Elena’s background and highlight some of her most influential frameworks to prepare you for her upcoming talk at Userpilot’s Product Drive conference: “Next Evolution of PLG.”

Who is Elena Verna?

Elena Verna is one of Silicon Valley’s most sought-after growth experts and operators. Working with high-growth companies, including Miro, SurveyMonkey, Amplitude, and Dropbox, she has influenced and executed growth strategies that transformed startups into industry giants.

Elena is a partner at Reforge, where she created courses on Growth Leadership, Experimentation and Testing, Monetization and Pricing, and Product-Led Growth. She enjoys writing, speaking, and hosting events on topics related to growth frameworks, product-led strategies, and scaling B2B businesses.

Currently, she works as Head of Growth at Lovable, where she helped scale the AI-native company to $80M ARR in just seven months.

Elena’s journey in growth and product-led strategies

Elena’s career journey has taken her through various roles that have shaped her unique perspective on scaling companies. Before her current position, she served as interim Head of Growth at Dropbox and Amplitude. Before that, she spent over three years as SVP of Growth at SurveyMonkey, where she built high-performing teams that drove significant growth across acquisition, activation, monetization, and retention.

She has also held leadership positions as interim CMO at Miro and has advised dozens of companies, including Superhuman, Sanity, Veed, MongoDB, and Netlify. Her expertise spans from data analysis to product management, marketing, and growth strategy.

Elena’s journey began in neuroscience before transitioning to analytics, where she discovered her passion for bridging data insights with actionable product improvements.

Elena’s thought leadership: Essential frameworks for growth professionals

Elena maintains an active presence through her newsletter “Elena’s Growth Scoop” at elenaverna.com, where she shares cutting-edge insights on growth strategies and frameworks. Here are some of her most influential contributions:

The Motions x Levers Growth Model: Elena developed this framework that identifies three core motions (product-led, marketing-led, and sales-led) intersecting with growth levers. This model helps companies evolve their growth strategies across all three motions rather than focusing on just one approach.

Product-Led Sales (PLS) Framework: Elena pioneered insights into how product-led sales differ from traditional product-led growth, helping companies understand when and how to invest in PLS strategies for scaling B2B revenue.

Growth Loops vs. Optimization Framework: Drawing from her work at companies like Dropbox, Elena teaches the difference between sustainable growth loops (the engine) and one-off optimizations (lubricants), helping teams focus on building lasting competitive advantages.

“Not all growth tactics are created equal. The Racecar Growth Framework separates growth loops (engine) from optimizations (lubricants) from one-off tactics (turbo boosts) from funnels (fuel). It’s a valuable model for product managers and growth professionals aiming for sustained success.” – says Elena Verna in her article

AI-Native Growth Strategies: Through her work at Lovable, Elena is developing new frameworks for how growth operates differently in AI-native companies, where products can adapt in real-time and traditional playbooks often fail.

“Before Lovable, when someone said ‘AI-native,’ I assumed they meant the product. Built with AI at its core. Agent workflows. GPT something-something. But after getting in the trenches here, I’ve realized: the product being AI-powered is only half the story. The real shift is how people work.” – says Elena Vena in her article

Elena’s podcast appearances and speaking engagements

Elena continues sharing her expertise across various podcasts, conferences, and industry events. Here are a few highlights you can listen to right away:

• Lenny’s Podcast: “The Ultimate Guide to Product-Led Sales” – Elena shared comprehensive insights into PLS strategies, metrics for identifying qualified accounts, and when companies should invest in product-led sales motions.
• Lenny’s Podcast: “10 Growth Tactics That Never Work” (January 2025) – Elena discussed common growth mistakes teams make and shared her three favorite growth frameworks for sustainable scaling. She also announced her transition to full-time advising for high-growth tech companies.
• Behind the Craft by Peter Yang: “The Journey from SVP to Solopreneur” – Elena talked about her transition from traditional leadership roles to solopreneurship and back to full-time roles, sharing lessons about non-linear career paths.

Join Elena live at Product Drive

Don’t miss the opportunity to learn from one of the leading voices in product-led growth. Elena will be sharing her latest insights and frameworks at Product Drive during her talk, “Next Evolution of PLG.”

Elena will chart the evolution of product-led growth from “more signups” to “more revenue per account.” She’ll cover the shift from PQLs to account-level intent, from one-size onboarding to dynamic paths, and from feature launches to outcome-driven monetization. The focus? How AI changes everything from org design to experimentation when products can adapt in real-time, requiring new approaches to minimum viable onboarding.

“PLG is evolving from ‘more signups’ to ‘more revenue per account'” – Elena Verna

Register for Product Drive to join Elena Verna and other experts live and be part of the conversation that’s shaping the future of product-led growth. The participation is free, but the seats are limited. Save your spot fast!