week 121: $5M in revenue and still in problem-market fit stage
time... it takes time
thank you to over 11,000 of you who read this weekly and share with your friends and family for behind the scenes on building zero to 10 million dollar business from scratch and beyond.
i also include a personal note in the end so i am grateful that you let me do that without judgement.
$5,726,296 - that's the revenue of GTM Partners since 2022 to-date.
let me confess a few things...
we have been in problem-market fit even with $5M in revenue until summer of 2024.
what changed?
we started to sell repeat deals on the following three product lines:
- original research and ROI studies
- GTM events and breakfast for CXOs
- GTM advisory for the 8 pillar GTM Operating System
the advisory has been broken down in 4 sub-products: with 4 week engagement
1. how to create ICP model to not only attract but retain customers
2. how to set the right GTM dashboard for decision making
3. how to identify which GTM motions and segments will drive the most ROI
4. how to build the entire GTM strategy on a slide for alignment and clarity
our best customer is typically a CEO who wants clarity, alignment and GTM decision making.
looking back, it feels like we should have known this all along.
Bryan Brown and i wrote the book on go-to-market that declared that the CEO owns GTM and yet, we took 3 years to get there.
but here's the thing...
building brand, takes time.
building frameworks that work and are battle tested, takes time.
building team with not only the knowledge but excellently deliver, takes time.
3 years into it, i can now confidently say, we are at the early stage of product-market fit.
lesson for myself and feel free to steal it:
do the little things and improve daily. time will make it for all of it.
on a personal note, here’s what i am doing daily with my family.
i pick a verse in the bible that i am reading from one of the chapters and write a short self reflection for us as a family.
for example, if it’s about patience, i will share a bit about my challenges with patience and what i am trying to do to improve it.
i learned that from a friend of mine who is mentoring my son as he goes from a teenager to a young man.
i feel this has done two things:
for one, i feel accountable to read my Bible no matter what as the first thing in the morning as i share a few thoughts with my family
secondly, it creates a standard for the family where just by observation, the kids and my wife knows that i am holding myself to a higher standard so i can’t just share and talk about it, i have to live it - otherwise i will be a hypocrite.
finally, and the bonus is when the my wife or kids responds and says amen when something connects from my 2 cents on the verse.
well, i plan to continue this habit for the rest of my life so that at a minimum there is a one constant in their life from me which is the love for Jesus for them and for them to know that i love them, every single day.
still in problem-market fit stage with this parenting thing, but testing new ideas and landing on this now feels like “product marketing fit”
leader point: in business and in life, all it really takes is the little things that you do daily for it to amount to something great.