Scale to $1M ARR
From here, retention and expansion matter more than acquisition. Most companies stall at this exact point by ignoring that.
Stage 6
You are done with this stage when: $83,333 MRR — $1M ARR.
Objectives
- Fix the leaky bucket first
At 5% monthly churn, $1M ARR needs you to sell $600k of new revenue a year just to stand still.
- Grow revenue per customer
Cheaper than acquisition and it compounds with every cohort you already own.
- Turn on paid, with a payback rule
Paid works here and not earlier, because you finally know your real LTV and conversion rate.
- Open a second segment
One segment eventually runs out. Our judgement, not a measured figure, is somewhere near $1M ARR. Open the next one before it does.
- Add sales assist for larger deals
Not a sales team. A human on the deals where a human changes the outcome.
- Own the category term
The last compounding asset: being the name people say when they describe the problem.