(3/6) How to get from $1M to $10M ARR

Step 1 of removing yourself from the sales process as a founder is to nail retention first. Which is often counterintuitive as most want to focus on accelerating acquisition immediately.

"It doesn’t matter how many customers you acquire, if you have a leaky bucket, the math doesn't work anymore."

This is part 3 of a 6 part deep dive on how to get from $1M to $10M ARR which is based on my discussion with Guillaume Jacquet, the co-founder of Vasco, his 2nd startup after selling his last one to Lightspeed Commerce (LSPD.TO) post Series B.

Step 1/4: Nail retention first

Most founders who hit $1M immediately focus on accelerating acquisition (meaning hiring to expand the top of funnel).

Rather, the first function you should remove yourself from as a founder is customer success.

Before pouring resources into acquisition, ensure the customers you fought so hard to win on your journey to $1M are actually staying, finding value, and becoming advocates.

This seems counterintuitive to many. Investing in growth means getting more customers.

However, consider the math: Say you're losing 3-4% of customers monthly. This doesn’t sound great but it’s also not too dramatic, right?

Wrong - it actually means you’re churning nearly half your revenue annually. No amount of acquisition can overcome this leakage.

On top, your existing customers form the foundation for everything else. They provide case studies, testimonials, referrals, and product feedback. They're living proof that your solution works.

How can you build a compelling marketing narrative around customers who aren't succeeding with your product?

To be able to improve specific parts of the sales funnel, you, the founder have to remove yourself from other parts first (the day only has 24 hours after all).

So before you focus on anything else, you have to make sure your existing customers are in the best hands possible. Thus, your first specialized hire should be in customer success.

Who is ideally someone who wakes up every morning thinking exclusively about retaining customers and ensuring they realize value.

Only when you've established that new customers reliably become successful, long-term customers should you turn your attention to acquisition.

This approach might feel like it's slowing your growth initially, but it's actually laying the foundation for sustainable expansion.

Sometimes, the fastest way to grow is to stop focusing on growth for a little first.

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