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

"It costs five times less to grow existing customers than to acquire new ones."

This is part 6 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 4/4: Split customer success into implementation, retention, and expansion

After:

1. Securing customer success,

2. Establishing predictable pipeline generation, and

3. Optimizing your closing process,

This is the final step in scaling to $10M ARR and beyond which is about further specialization in your post-sale functions.

Initially, as you removed yourself from CS (step 1), you consolidated implementation and retention under one function.

Now’s the time to split up these roles to scale.

Implementation specialists should focus on rapidly delivering initial value, while retention specialists build long-term relationships.

Why? Because these functions require different skillsets.

Implementation is project-focused, technically detailed, and measures success through time-to-value metrics.

Decreasing time-to-first-value is perhaps the single most powerful lever in your entire revenue engine. Customers who experience value quickly are dramatically more likely to expand and renew.

By creating specialists focused exclusively on implementation, you accelerate this critical metric.

Retention is relationship-oriented and measures success through reduced churn and increased product usage.

The last step - after you split out implementation to decrease time-to-value - is to split out expansion from retention to grow revenue from existing accounts.

Once again because the skills needed to identify and capture expansion opportunities differ from those required for retention.

While retention specialists excel at creating customer happiness, they may struggle with the more transactional aspects of upselling.

Even with a smaller customer base, having clear ownership of implementation, retention, and expansion creates more predictable results than expecting one person to juggle all three functions.

Plus nailing expansion is key as it comes with a far more efficient increase in revenue vs acquiring new customers.

Congratulations!

If you get to this point with regard to removing yourself from the sales process, you’ve achieved complete specialization across the customer journey.

Meaning you've created a revenue engine that doesn't depend on your founder involvement.

Each function now has clear ownership, metrics, and processes, allowing you to diagnose and address issues with surgical precision.

The ultimate test of your revenue engine isn't whether it can grow - it's whether it can grow without you.

Congratulations on getting here!

Want to read the previous posts?

(1/6) Narrow down your ICP

(2/6) Transition from founder magic to specialized systems

(3/6) Step 1 of removing yourself from the sales process as a founder: Nail retention first

(4/6) Step 2: Build a predictable pipeline engine

(5/6) Step 3: Master the close