Anish Dhar

Well said, Jen Abel. And even beyond these ARR guardrails, startups often instinctively throw in enterprise and SMB as dual strategies. Or direct and PLG. Outbound and channel. And more! #startup #sales #GTM #SMB #channel #enterprise #PLG #directsales

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The journey from $1 to $10M in ARR is typically an exercise in finding your first channel-market fit as a GTM/Marketing leader and/or founder. After prioritizing the top 1-3 channels you believe are most likely to be a fit for your product, finding channel-market fit is typically an exercise in experiments and iterations. If you’re flying blind bc you don’t have the systems, processes, and data hygiene setup to measure and test quickly inside a framework, it’s going to be a difficult journey. Check out the podcast I did with the team at Evron for more mistakes to avoid on your journey from $1M to $10M ARR.

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The path to $10MM ARR is about finding your repeatable, scalable sales motion. The formula is simple, but not easy. It looks like this: Effort + Enthusiasm + Messaging + Lead Quality = Results When you are scaling a sales team, your job is to manage the inputs. Those are the things on the left side of this equation. If you can reduce the variability of the inputs, you will have more consistent results. Put another way. Consistent inputs leads to consistent outputs. Let's break it down... 1. Effort is the driver for your sales performance. You cannot scale without consistent effort. Effort includes the velocity of sales activity (phone calls, emails, meetings, etc.). Effort also includes the way that you execute your sales activity. This is your sales process and sales playbook. You can improve the quality of your effort with learning and development. 2. Enthusiasm is an amplifier for your effort. You have to act like you want to earn the business. A little enthusiasm goes a long way in closing more business. I've found that you can't teach enthusiasm. You must hire for it. 3. Messaging is how you get prospects to believe what you believe. Your messaging is your value prop. It's how you approach your ICP. It's the way that you convince customers that their current version of the world is no longer acceptable and they must make a chance. The best messaging illustrates the consequences of inaction. 4. Lead quality drives your conversion rate You have to stay focused on your ICP. The more variable your lead quality, the more inconsistent your sales results. The best effort, enthusiasm, and messaging are helpless if you are focused on the wrong accounts. This is the formula for predictable, repeatable, scalable sales. Manage the consistency of your inputs and you will have consistent outputs. What about you? What's your formula for repeatable results?

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F*** is my favorite four-letter F-word. F*** = Free...obviously. 😏 Speaking of free, here's something I'm really excited about. Over at RevOps Co-op, we've got not one, but TWO complimentary RevOpsAF conference passes to give away courtesy of our friends at Enlyft. 🎁 Maybe you're a revenue operator in between gigs who wants to expand your network? 🤝 Or an employed RevOps pro who wants to attend #RevOpsAF 2024 in San Diego but your company isn't able to sponsor you? If this sounds like you then throw the 🙋 emoji in the comments and DM me to toss your name in the literal raffle hat. Sound like someone you know? Tag 'em on this post and have them do the same! Big shout out to Michael Schultz and Phil Gray from Enlyft for making this happen. ❤️ PS - learn more about RevOpsAF 2024 at revopsaf(dot)com #revops #revenueoperations #salesops #salesoperations #marketingops #marketingoperations #mops

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You think building a startup requires a lot of effort? Consider the effort required to live a life without aligning your soul/self with market and community. Best time to plant a tree/build a startup-- 10 years ago. Next best time is right now. Try this: https://lnkd.in/ggF8bGbv

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Going from Zero to Product Market Fit is like getting out of a Bermuda Triangle For every direction that works out, an equal and opposite direction works too It is shocking how few get to product market fit Only 15 out of 100 SaaS companies get to a million dollars in revenue When you have PMF, it is an awesome feeling Everything is going smoothly for you It also feels scary and out of control You push one unit, and ten units of progress happen But when you don’t have it…. You push ten units of effort, and not even a unit of progress happens It feels like a Sisyphean punishment Moving a boulder up the mountain In the GenAI age, I hear arguments that go “The focus should be on the core functionality. Like how musicians concentrate on the music itself” This is clearly a faulty analogy Businesses providing playback formats (cassette tapes, CDs) are obsolete today Gen AI brings AI below the API No more does one need to stand up a team in ML Spend a few million dollars to “translate languages” or “transcribe accurately” GenAI now assures that Getting to PMF boils down to the basics - Do you understand the problem deeply - Can you build a 10x better solution - Can you execute & iterate faster - Don’t die in the process (cash) What has worked for you to get out of the Bermuda triangle?

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To scale from $1M to $10M ARR, you need to turn your ad hoc GTM efforts into a well-oiled machine. This means creating repeatable processes across your entire GTM - from lead gen to sales to customer success. The good news for technical founders is that they're experts at solving complex engineering challenges with precision, efficiency, and structure. At this stage of startup growth, they need to apply that same systems-oriented mindset to GTM - which, for B2B startups, can be approached more as a science than an art. More in the May edition of B2BaCEO: https://lnkd.in/emsvFN9q

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Calendly is a $3B call scheduling app, but it didn't start that way: Attempt 1: Dating app [FAILED ❌] Attempt 2: Selling projectors [FAILED ❌] Attempt 3: Selling grills [FAILED ❌] Attempt 4: Calendar app [SUCCESS ✅] Lesson: Stay true to your startup journey, not the idea. #startup

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51 Comments

Building early stage startup momentum? Make sure your speed-to-help is measured in minutes. In today’s environment, you can’t wait days for help. You have to get unstuck fast. With timely advice, execution quickens. Thats the power of a safe-space community that’s built on ‘giving’. It’s our foundational value. You should give what we are building a try.  Zero risk.   DM me to learn more. We’re happy to tee up a call. Happy Wednesday, ya’ll. ———— Please consider ♻️ with founders in your network. As early stage founders, we at times, are a problem away from sinking or propelling forward.

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The average tenure for a PE/VC-backed GTM executive is 17 months. At this pace, you'll work for 14 companies over a 20 year career. Here's the 7 things you need to achieve your professional goals in this environment: 1. Foundational training on modern Go-To-Market best practices.  You have to understand how the world is moving - doesn’t matter how big (or small) your company is.  You have to understand the new basics and what you learned at Salesforce in 2005 won’t cut it.  2. Functional training in your role from trusted outside resources (your company will NOT have the means to sufficiently train you on anything but their industry and their product). 3. A group of peers you can bounce ideas off of, stress test new approaches, and help you avoid common pitfalls.  You can’t afford to make big bets without asking a few people that don’t work at your company.  You are risking your job and in some cases your career. 4. Regular, centralized access to the newest sales and marketing technologies so you know how to use them and whether they’re a fit for your team.  AI is happening NOW.  You need demos, you need to be testing, and you need to know what's happening. The world is changing RAPIDLY. 5. Centralized access to top tier private equity and VC firms managed independently of your current employer’s financing strategy. You need to be in the room where it happens. 6. The ability to negotiate executive compensation with assistance from the world’s leading experts. The smallest tweak to your equity agreement could have a 5, 6, or 7 figure outcome on your net worth. 7. A permanent homebase filled with people that care about you and are looking out for your best interests without conflicts or obligations to anyone else. A place whose incentives are completely aligned to your professional success. That’s what we do at Pavilion. That’s what we’re building. It’s not about any one course. It’s not about a Slack community. It’s not about a big event in Boston.  Or London.  Or Austin.  It’s about helping you live a meaningful and fulfilling career. It’s about helping you sleep better at night, knowing that a community of 10,000 has your back at all times. It’s about landing in Sydney or Barcelona or Kansas City or Salt Lake or Seattle and knowing you can instantly plug into a group of operating executives that are there to help and support you. It’s about looking backwards in 5, 10, or 20 years and saying to yourself, “All things considered, that was a great ride and I accomplished what I set out to do.” If any of this sounds appealing. If you’re feeling lost or alone or adrift. If you want help with your career and resetting your destination to maximize wealth creation, impact, possibility, and fulfillment. Well then - join us! If you want to learn more, DM me.

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This is partly what why I prefer bootstrapped businesses. VC-backed companies can be rocket-fuelled skates with unnecessary pressure from boards. And unless you know exactly what you're doing, there's a high probability going in the wrong direction. #bootstrap #product #tech #vc

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FOUNDERS STOP DEMOING On net, early stage founders should stop demoing their products on the first sales call. I've watched dozens of Fathom videos of pre-seed and seed stage founders I've invested in, and its the number one culprit for wasting time and derailing your sales motions. Your product demo is SACRED and should only be shown to qualified buyers. In complex sales, the goal of your first sales call is NOT to sell, but determine whether you are talking to a qualified prospect: an influential champion at a company with a real usage case, that will actually buy your product in a reasonable amount of time. Demoing can incite an excitable stakeholder with no power, and organizations with no real need, to progress a deal. This false sense of progress creates an escalating sense of sunk cost that makes it hard for founders to abandon the deal. You end up spending a ton of time in follow up hell chasing a bad prospective design partner. In the early stages, all you have is time and resource costs. Don't squander it chasing bad customers. While its tempting to use slides or a product demo as a crutch, it completely derails your ability to run a productive "discovery" call. FOCUS on the conversation and if necessary prepare a list of 20 questions, sequenced by batches, that unlocks true understanding of the stakeholder's role / power, their organization buying process, and whether they may have a real usage case and urgency to make a purchasing decision in the next 2 quarters. If they don't, throw them in your nurturing campaign and move on. Your time is better spent focusing on setting more meetings.

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Nobody realizes that Apollo and ZoomInfo were both stuck at single-digit ARR for YEARS. When they finally got unstuck, unlocked rapid growth, and hit billion dollar valuations, both companies had ONE THING in common: They hired Santosh Sharan. Here are the 7 things that makes Santosh a top 0.1% unicorn builder: 1. He understands the mechanics of exponential growth Santosh believes that sustained growth is about “Stacking S-Curves”. Meaning, you bang your head against the wall for years, then something hits, explosively. During that explosion you're working on your next S-curve. Steady exponential growth is about stacking these curve. He also appreciates initiatives that have the potential to unlock non-linear growth (such as LinkedIn for RB2B), and the drivers of growth you can’t measure. 2. He doesn’t play to win; he plays to destroy all competitors Santosh’s instinct is to design businesses and GTM strategies that are impossible to compete with, which usually means forgoing near-term revenue in favor of virally expanding user bases. When you become the 800lb gorilla and synonymous with the category you can charge premium prices and see exponential revenue growth. 3. He deeply understands all of the key departments of a startup Santosh started as an engineer, moved into Product and Growth, and then moved on to running Sales and Marketing teams. He approaches all teams with an engineer’s mindset. He sees his role as removing blockers in one department and moving to the next. 4. He knows what the building blocks of massive future success look like Santosh has been a part of the largest data companies when they were fledgling startups. He has seen, over and over again, what a unicorn looks like as it’s being born, and knows the opportunities worth pursuing. 5. He is empathetic towards employees and customers No matter the problem, Santosh has seen it. He understands the immense pain that we go through as we grow. He also believes in creating businesses that treat customers well and make the world a better place. 6. He knows how to put together a killer data asset Few people in the world could put together a fixed-price data asset that would allow us to make the free offer we have at RB2B. Santosh is one of them. 7. He understands fundraising and M&A Santosh has run many transactions as the buyer and seller, and has done countless VC and Growth Equity rounds. He understands what investors and acquirers look for in companies, which informs growth and product strategy. TAKEAWAY Santosh is a Unicorn builder. A look at his LinkedIn profile will show you exactly what I’m talking about. People always ask me how I convinced him to work with us. I don’t have a great answer, other than “I somehow did”. Next Tuesday (3pm EST), we all have the honor of learning from him directly He’s going to talk: - The Mechanics of Growth - How he gets exec teams unstuck - The building blocks of unicorns Join here: https://lnkd.in/gkSJSGeu

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CS teams NEED to start "managing up" with execs and the board by talking about REVENUE. Yes, you can keep talking about sentiment and feelings, but start with the $. Don't lead with churn- Bottom-line-focused execs don't like that headline, so you need to tell the story better. An informal poll had CS teams owning over 50% of the revenue of many SaaS companies. Lead with this and have it be your first talking point. From there you will be able to get more things done with other departments, as your requests will be revenue-focused Need to get a Customer Success Platform as you scale? Point to revenue and the potential to lose revenue without efficiencies Need to hire more to prevent burnout? Point to Revenue potential with renewals and upsells Talk in the language your execs and board want to hear.

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How does David beat Goliath aka early-stage startups close candidates also interviewing at FAANG / larger companies? Generally, they don’t, but here’s what @SingleSprout's data (80% offer close rate in last 6 months) says: 1) $30k: If the offer from a big company exceeds yours by over $30k, you're very likely not going to get that candidate. 2) # of Competitors: A candidate considering one large company might still be within reach. However, the more large companies they entertain, the less likely you'll get them. 3) Motivation: Understanding why a candidate genuinely prefers your company is crucial. Look for and test for interest in impact, equity, and the entrepreneurial journey. Unfortunately, most startups hiring on their own can't get this level of information from a candidate, and sadly waste a lot of precious time :(

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Should CRO’s even exist? Not if they’re going to be: - Super expensive glorified head of sales - With no marketing or CS experience - Compensated like an account executive  - No focus on ICP or aligning the entire GTM motion - No coordination with peers in cross-functions - No P&L fluency or ability to read a P&L  - Only focused on new business with no understanding of recurring impact - No knowledge of the bowtie or systems designed to deliver ongoing customer value - Have a short term view and only care about the quarter CROs should absolutely exist if they: - Can come from Marketing, CS, or RevOps not just Sales - Have foundational understanding and respect for other functions - Are compensated like all other executives - Are focused on driving tight alignment across the GTM motion - Are focused on collaborating across Sales, Marketing, CS leveraging data generated from RevOps - Are focused on a customer journey that begins when the prospect lands on the website and continues through at least 3 annual renewals - Have a deep knowledge of the bowtie  - Have built expertise as revenue architects - Have a long term view that balances short term urgency with long term enterprise value Revenue generation is a team sport. Recurring revenue is driven by recurring impact. If you’re leading the revenue function, you have to understand that and you have to be an expert at driving tight alignment across the customer journey to deliver that impact. This is the way.

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"Mr. Money lives on focus island"* I regularly talk to B2B SaaS founders about the best revenue channel to start with. They usually have 3 dreams: A) The “product led growth” dream 🧑‍💻 Tons of small customers who come by themselves through the website. Problem: high churn, no expansion potential. B) The “someone else is selling for me “ dream 🤝 Finding sales partners who have access to the market and sell my solution. Problem: no commitment, complicated contracts, no direct access to customers. C) The “Big fish” dream 🐠 Closing big enterprise deals with a lot revenue potential. Problem: long sales cycle, many stake holders, high customization effort. Dreams are good, but revenue is better for a startup! ➡️ The best target group up to 1M ARR revenue are mid market companies! Here you have the best correlation between sales cycle, sales potential and product feedback. Focus and learn to sell to this customer group in the beginning. Start selling "up-market" later and do partner business opportunistically. Happy selling 🚀 *The saying is from my friend Johannis Hatt he's right and a great business angel on top. ____________________________ Sharing my experience as an entrepreneur and angel investor. Investing in early stage B2B SaaS startups. Happy to connect 👋

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She helped Slack go from $100M - $700M ARR then  go public. Previously at Google and now currently advising high-growth SaaS startups like Miro, Loom, ServiceNow, Holly Chen is a GTM force. In the latest episode of The GTM Podcast, Holly and I got to break down her journey in tech and notably branding, pricing and customer success for AI startups. We cover: -Strategies for AI startups to differentiate, drive retention, and optimize pricing -The importance of strong branding and concrete use cases for AI market penetration -Evolving customer success models to maximize value in AI deployments -Transitioning from sales-led to product-led growth and key considerations -The rising role of influencer marketing in B2B and how to leverage it effectively -etc etc Have a listen wherever you 🎧 to your pods.

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