Right, let's have an honest chat.
Last month, I sat down with a founder who'd just burnt through £2M trying to reach £5M ARR. Smart guy. Good product. Decent team.
Still failed.
His confession over coffee: "We did everything the playbooks said. Hired SDRs. Ran Facebook ads. Built a 'scalable' sales process. But we're still stuck at £2M and running out of money."
Sound familiar?
Here's the uncomfortable truth after working with 70+ B2B startups: most founders are following a growth playbook that's designed to fail.
The "growth at all costs" lie
The traditional VC playbook goes something like this:
- Raise money
- Hire loads of salespeople
- Blast the market with outreach
- Hope something sticks
- Raise more money
- Repeat until profitable (maybe)
This might have worked in 2015 when money was cheap and CACs were low.
Today? It's a recipe for burning cash while your competitors (the smart ones) quietly steal your customers.
The four reasons startups get stuck before £5M
1. The "everyone could buy our product" delusion
I recently worked with a SaaS founder who proudly told me their TAM was "every business with employees."
Brilliant. So is Microsoft's.
When I dug into their data, here's what I found:
- 80% of revenue came from financial services companies
- Specifically, wealth management firms
- Between 50-200 employees
- Who'd just failed an FCA audit
Their actual ICP was hiding in plain sight. But they were too busy chasing "everyone" to notice.
The painful reality: When you target everyone, you resonate with no one. Your messaging becomes vanilla. Your product gets bloated with features. Your sales team has no idea who to call.
2. Hiring your way to growth (spoiler: doesn't work)
"We just need more SDRs!"
I hear this every week. As if adding bodies to a broken process will somehow fix it.
Here's what actually happens when you hire too early:
Months 1-3: Recruiting, hiring, onboarding
Months 4-6: "Finding their feet" (aka not hitting targets)
Months 7-9: Realising the process is broken
Months 10-12: Fixing the process or firing the SDRs
Congratulations. You've just spent £200K+ and a year to learn what two weeks of proper analysis would have told you.
3. Measuring the wrong bloody things
Everyone tracks MQLs, SQLs, and pipeline value. But these metrics lie.
True story: A client came to me celebrating their "hockey stick" MQL growth. Up 400% in six months!
The full picture:
- MQL to SQL conversion: 1.5% (down from 12%)
- Average deal size: £8K (down from £40K)
- Sales cycle: 180 days (up from 60)
- CAC: £15K (for an £8K deal...)
They were celebrating their way to bankruptcy.
4. The pricing cowardice epidemic
Most founders price their product based on fear:
- Fear of looking expensive
- Fear of losing deals
- Fear of competitor pricing
- Fear of what the market will bear
So they price low, hoping to "land grab" and raise prices later.
Except later never comes. Because once you're the cheap option, that's your brand.
The B2B revenue reality check
After helping dozens of startups navigate the £0-5M journey, here's what actually works:
Get forensic about your ideal customer
Forget TAM. Forget SAM. Forget all the fancy market sizing.
Find the 10 customers who:
- Bought quickly
- Paid well
- Actually use your product
- Want to buy more
Study them like your business depends on it. Because it does.
One client discovered their best customers all had one thing in common: they'd recently hired their first operations person. That's not a demographic. That's a moment.
Result: Sales cycle dropped from 180 to 45 days.
Fix your process before scaling your people
I recently helped a startup reorganise their entire sales process. We:
- Mapped every step of their buyer journey
- Found 12 unnecessary touchpoints
- Automated 60% of admin tasks
- Created clear qualification criteria
- Built repeatable playbooks
Same team. 3x the output.
The multiplier effect: A great process makes average people good. A bad process makes good people quit.
Price based on value, not fear
Here's a simple framework:
- Calculate the measurable value you create
- Price at 10-20% of that value
- Walk away from customers who don't see it
- Sleep better at night
One client tripled prices overnight. Lost 25% of their pipeline. Revenue grew 125%.
Maths is beautiful when you're not afraid of it.
The compound effect of saying no
The fastest way to grow is to shrink your target market.
Sounds mental, I know. But watch what happens:
- Narrower target = clearer messaging
- Clearer messaging = higher conversion
- Higher conversion = lower CAC
- Lower CAC = sustainable growth
It's not about doing less. It's about mattering more.
Your practical roadmap to £5M
Stage 1: £0-500K (The validation phase)
- Talk to 100 potential customers (properly talk, not survey)
- Manually close 10-20 deals
- Document everything that works
- Resist the urge to hire
- Focus on learning, not earning
Stage 2: £500K-2M (The systematisation phase)
- Build your first sales playbook
- Hire one salesperson (not five)
- Test and refine your process
- Fix your pricing based on real data
- Say no more than yes
Stage 3: £2M-5M (The acceleration phase)
- Scale only what's proven
- Expand your ICP carefully
- Build revenue operations properly
- Consider adjacent products/markets
- Keep your CAC:LTV ratio holy
The mistakes that will kill you
Mistake 1: Scaling too early
If you can't predictably turn £1 into £3, adding more £1s won't help.
Mistake 2: Solving with headcount
People amplify process. If your process is broken, you're just amplifying failure.
Mistake 3: Chasing bad revenue
Not all revenue is created equal. Bad customers will kill your business faster than no customers.
Mistake 4: Ignoring unit economics
If your CAC is higher than year-one revenue, you don't have a business. You have a charity.
The truth about international expansion
"We've maxed out the UK market!"
Have you though?
If you're struggling to hit £5M in your home market, international expansion won't save you. It'll distract you.
I've guided 70+ international expansions. Every successful one had already nailed their home market.
Going international before product-market fit is like opening a second restaurant while the first one's on fire.
Your next steps
Stop following the traditional playbook. It's broken.
Instead:
- Get clear on who you serve best
- Fix your process before hiring
- Price based on value, not fear
- Say no to bad revenue
- Master your home market first
The path from £0-5M isn't about growth hacks or blitzscaling. It's about discipline, focus, and doing the basics brilliantly.
Most startups fail because they try to run before they can walk.
Don't be most startups.
Ready to fix your revenue engine?
I help B2B founders build sustainable growth without the BS. If you're tired of the traditional playbook and ready for what actually works, let's talk.
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