Goal of this stageA sales and marketing engine that produces predictable revenue, and a small team that can run it without the founder doing everything.
You have proof that customers pay. Now the founder has to stop being the only salesperson, support desk and finance department. Growth comes from making what works repeatable.
Build the company around nine functional units
Techcelerate looks at every company through nine functional units: Opportunity & Strategy, Product & Engineering, Marketing, Sales Engine, Operations, Customer Success, Finance, HR and Legal. At this stage, score yourself honestly on each and fix the weakest one first.
What to do
- Document the sales process so someone else can follow it, then hire or partner to run it.
- Invest in customer success. Retention and expansion revenue are the cheapest growth you will ever get.
- Get control of the numbers. Monthly management accounts, a 12-month cash forecast and unit economics.
- Hire for the constraint. Each hire should remove the biggest bottleneck to revenue.
Common mistakes
- Hiring a team ahead of revenue on the strength of a forecast.
- Letting churn quietly cancel out new sales.