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 traditional VC playbook goes something like this:
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.
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:
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.
"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.
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:
They were celebrating their way to bankruptcy.
Most founders price their product based on fear:
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.
After helping dozens of startups navigate the £0-5M journey, here's what actually works:
Forget TAM. Forget SAM. Forget all the fancy market sizing.
Find the 10 customers who:
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.
I recently helped a startup reorganise their entire sales process. We:
Same team. 3x the output.
The multiplier effect: A great process makes average people good. A bad process makes good people quit.
Here's a simple framework:
One client tripled prices overnight. Lost 25% of their pipeline. Revenue grew 125%.
Maths is beautiful when you're not afraid of it.
The fastest way to grow is to shrink your target market.
Sounds mental, I know. But watch what happens:
It's not about doing less. It's about mattering more.
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.
"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.
Stop following the traditional playbook. It's broken.
Instead:
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.