Scaling from $10M to $25M in SaaS: 5 tips for founders

I’ve helped dozens of startups grow to $10M in revenue. There's on pattern they ALL have in common: Stage 1 ($1-3M): Perfect one thing One ICP, one use case, one sales motion Don't build enterprise features when you're selling to SMB Don’t try to sell to SMB when you built for enterprise Stage 2 ($3-5M): Scale what works Hire more people to do the thing that's working Add one new channel or segment (not three) Build systems around what’s working Stage 3 ($5-10M+): Add complexity Verticalize, add product lines, expand geographically Add specialization (SEs, different sales roles, etc.) The mistake: Trying to do Stage 3 activities at Stage 1. I see founders building enterprise sales teams when they haven't figured out how to convert the pipeline they have. Hiring VPs when they need individual contributors. Trying to growth hack instead cultivating consistency. Everything feels hard when you're trying to solve tomorrow's problems with today's resources. ————————— 👋 Hi, I'm Monica Stewart. I help B2B SaaS founders grow revenue from $1-$10M ARR. If this is you, send me a DM

As founders, we all have that one thing we could do forever. For me, it’s the product. I could spend 15 hours inside our database, dissecting how Google thinks — and feel pure joy doing it. That’s my zone of genius. It’s exhilarating. It’s where I feel ahead of the curve. But for a long time, it was also my biggest trap. When Kalicube® pivoted to serve CEOs and founders, acquisition stalled. The team was strong. The product was world-class. But new business? Barely moving. My instinct? Retreat into the product. Build more. Polish more. Optimize more. Because that’s where I felt safe. But here’s the hard truth — your business doesn’t grow at the speed of your genius. It grows (or stalls) at the speed of your weakest link. If your product is an 8, your team is an 8, and acquisition is a 2… you’re not sitting tall — you’re sitting on the floor. So I forced myself into the uncomfortable: one hour a day of outreach. Not “sales.” Just building real relationships. Because in B2B, growth comes from mutual trust — not perfect products. Your constraint might not be sales. Maybe it’s hiring. Maybe it’s delivery. Maybe it’s finance. Whatever it is — that’s where your next breakthrough is hiding. So here’s your challenge: Score your three-legged stool — Product. Team. Acquisition. Where’s your 2 out of 10? Forbes Business Council #ThreeLeggedStool #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Product #Team #Acquisition #Kalicube #FoundersJourney #BusinessGrowth

Every founder has a zone of genius — but sometimes, that genius can become the trap. Jason Barnard reminds us that a business doesn’t grow at the speed of its strengths… it grows at the speed of its weakest link. A powerful reflection on leadership, discomfort, and growth. Read the full piece on Forbes Business Council: https://lnkd.in/g5AXz-GV #ThreeLeggedStool #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Kalicube #FoundersJourney #BusinessGrowth

Every SaaS founder hits a ceiling It’s not technical It’s not financial It’s personal You built your company through speed, control, and hustle. Now those same traits are the reason you’re stuck You became the bottleneck You built the machine, but you never built a version that can run without you That’s the invisible ceiling The one built from your own habits Until you shift from operator to leader, Every new hire just adds to the problem Every growth spurt feels heavier, not lighter The next stage of growth isn’t about scaling the business It’s about scaling you Do you feel like you're banging your head on an invisible ceiling?

When new acquisitions stalled, we had two choices: Cut costs or create growth from within. Maybe you’ve been there, or you’re there right now? Here’s what I did: - Doubled down on strategic account management, growing two pilot accounts into multi-million-dollar global contracts and doubling our ARR. That success extended our runway and secured our future. - Went on site and talked to customers. I can’t stress this enough: TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS. Watch how they use your product. Ask the tough questions and actually listen. - Invited clients to events we were attending By doing this and listening deeply, I uncovered a major opportunity in our product offering. We built a solution around that insight and it became one of the most impactful new parts of our platform. The result? Clients gained powerful insights they didn't have before and saved hours of time weekly. This landed us an early renewal from a long-term client and it demoed well which helped with new logo acquisition. That experience reinforced what I know to be true: your customers will tell you exactly how to grow, if you know what to listen for. If you’re leading a lean team under pressure to grow without more headcount, I’ve been there. Most teams don’t fail because they lack effort. They fail because they lack alignment, the ability to ask quantifiable questions, uncover true business pain, and connect their solution to measurable impact. That’s where I come in. Through my fractional CX & GTM work, I help early-stage founders: - Build Account Management programs that turn relationships into revenue - Identify gaps in the customer journey & product offering that lead to churn or stalled growth - Use AI-powered insights to save time and drive retention When your team can articulate and deliver the business value of your solution in your customer’s words, not just its features, expansion becomes inevitable. I’m currently working with two founders and have capacity for one more. If you need help understanding your product–market fit & building strategic account management program at your early-stage startup, without adding the cost of a full-time hire, let’s chat.

Most SaaS and tech founders think they have a growth problem. They actually don’t. Here’s the real truth. 👇 Every problem is a talent problem. Two years ago, I met a SaaS founder who was stuck. + Revenue flatlined for 6 months. + Sales were inconsistent. + The team was burned out. He was convinced the issue was marketing. When we looked deeper, it wasn’t about leads. His people and systems were broken. He had the wrong mix of talent in key roles and no system to align his team around growth. So we rebuilt everything from the inside out. + Clarity: We redefined roles around outcomes. + Recruiting: We sourced passive talent for them. + Rhythm: Installed weekly cross-functional syncs. Within 90 days: + Close rate jumped 32% + Churn dropped by half + Pipeline increased by 250% It wasn’t marketing. It wasn’t product. It was talent alignment. This experience became the foundation for The SaaS Growth Coaching Program. Here are 5 pillars of the program: 1. Support & Coaching 2. Referrals & Network Access 3. Growth Systems & Playbooks 4. Community & Continuous Learning 5. Talent Acquisition (US + LATAM) Every founder we've coached learns this truth. You don’t fix growth by adding more noise. You fix it by aligning the right team. Because every problem is a talent problem. If you’re a SaaS or tech founder ready to scale without burnout DM me “SYSTEM” and I’ll share how The SaaS Growth Coaching Program works. Let's GROW! 🚀 Liam Fitzgerald #saas #saasgrowth #saasrecruiting #saastalent

Founders And it may not be all founders, but a random question: Have you reviewed your business development team or your business development playbook? Business Development or Outbound Sales is going through evolution(s)......per second. You can’t keep playing offense with a recession-era defense. Everyone’s talking about “resilience” and “grit” but does "resilience" and "grit fix" a broken system? Could even the sharpest founders are bleeding cash through their business development pipeline… and most don’t even see it happening. Here’s what’s really killing growth 👇 1️⃣ Tariffs and trade friction are quietly suffocating your margins. Your costs climb, your offers shrink, and your BD team is left pitching value that no longer exists. 2️⃣ Buyers are (almost always) in self-defense mode. You know the "We're going through our budget at the end of the year" and "Give us about 30-60 days to circle back". They’re sitting on cash, questioning ROI, and ghosting outreach like it’s a reflex. You’re well beyond selling against competitors. Now you’re selling against fear. 3️⃣ Your message sounds like everyone else’s. “We help you grow.” “We save you time.” “We drive efficiency.” That’s noise. Like a room full of different church choirs singing together. 4️⃣ (Could) Your BD team be overworked and under-psychologized? They’re making calls, sending sequences, and watching engagement die at hello. Do you have a behavioral problem that's not connecting? 5️⃣ The traditional pipeline math no longer works. 100 calls don’t get 10 meetings anymore. It’s 100 calls for 2 replies. And those will get back to you within 30-60 days or look at their budgets for next May. And the real kicker? Most founders keep doubling down in hiring more SDRs, virtual assistance, marketing services, buying more tools, building more dashboards while the human system underneath it all burns out. This is the moment to pause and ask: “What if our revenue problem isn’t operational but psychological?” Because if you can’t rewire how your team thinks, communicates, and connects in this market.......No tech stack, no script, no pricing model will save you. Let’s talk about what a high-performing business development engine actually looks like when tariffs rise and buyers freeze. Not theory. Reality. So Founder....... 💬 Have you had this experience lately with your business development? #Founders #BusinessDevelopment #SalesLeadership #Tariffs #EconomicTrends #IOPsychology #RevenueGrowth #Startups #Leadership

Most founders think scaling is about adding more. More leads. More sales. More people. But the companies that survive growth aren’t the ones who add more. They’re the ones who build better loops. → Every sales call creates a tighter script. → Every handoff makes the process cleaner. → Every client review sharpens the delivery system. Growth isn’t about speed. It’s about compression. If your company doubled tomorrow, would your loops compound—or would they collapse?

A business without sales processes isn’t a business. It’s a gamble.  And bootstrapped founders are using their own money. - Deals slip because of no defined sequence or follow up.  - Forecasts are fiction because there’s no pipeline discipline.  - New hires flounder because there’s no detailed onboarding plan.  I’ve seen companies increase revenue just by tightening basic processes. Start simple. ✅Document your buyer stages. ✅Create pipeline stages that are based on actions the prospect has taken. ✅Write out a detailed, two-week onboarding plan. ✅And put it all in a Sales Playbook for everyone to see and use. The sooner you build your processes, the sooner you buy freedom.  Ready to start? Founders only: Book a call.

In the early days of building Rampd, it was a grind. It got dark. I lived in the abyss with almost zero certainty. I'm referring to the first 18- 24 months where I questioned everything. Was there actually a market for founder-led sales coaching? Could I really help technical founders in a repeatable way who knew very little about selling? The early wins came slowly. Really slowly. My first client was a founder out of Brooklyn (navy yard) who was close to running out of cash. They were desperate enough to try anything, including working with someone who claimed they could help with sales. We worked together for 3.5 months, and the results were solid. It was such a huge wake up call. The takeaway was most founders don't need more sales tactics. They need someone to help them think differently about selling. Technical founders approach sales like a feature request. They want the exact script, the perfect email template, the one framework that solves everything. But sales isn't code. It's psychology, timing, and connecting with other humans. Founder-led is completely different from traditional sales. Most aren't seasoned reps who can handle rejection all day. They're builders who put their heart into their product and take every "no" personally. So I started developing methods specifically for founder brains. Structured processes that removed the guesswork. Frameworks that worked even when you're not naturally "good at sales." Systems that felt authentic instead of plug and play. Once I stopped trying to turn founders into traditional salespeople and started helping them sell like founders is when our results really took off. We didn't teach generic sales methodologies. We built systems that work with how founders actually think and operate. I've seen a lot of consultants come from the sales world and try to force founders into that box. We came from working with founders who were drowning in sales and built something that actually fits their reality. 8 years later, we've worked with hundreds of teams. But, without question those early days were terrifying. Every month wondering if this thing would actually work. The scariest part wasn't building the business, it was trusting whether or not I can build something that was repeatable and could actually help people. Once you get that dialed in things start to get exciting.