In this engaging conversation, Stijn Hendrikse, author of the T2D3 book and a growth expert at Kalungi, shares insights on scaling SaaS companies. He introduces the T2D3 framework, emphasizing the importance of adapting strategies at different growth stages. Stijn highlights common pitfalls founders face, like misidentifying growth constraints and struggling with team dynamics as companies grow. He reveals surprising truths about the shift from product focus to prioritizing people in scaling efforts, making this a must-listen for aspiring leaders.
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insights INSIGHT
Understanding the T2D3 Framework
T2D3 is a framework describing rapid SaaS growth patterns after product market fit.
It emphasizes diversifying demand channels, retaining customers, and monetizing existing clients.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Timing Your T2D3 Scaling
Only lean into T2D3 after having paying customers who stay and generate profit.
Focus on profitable customer acquisition and retention before scaling aggressively.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Use Jobs Over Personas
Use a job-to-be-done framework over traditional personas to better target customer needs.
Tailor messaging to different buyer journey stages for more effective engagement.
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John Doerr's "Measure What Matters" explores the power of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) as a goal-setting system. The book showcases how OKRs have been used by companies like Google and Intel to achieve ambitious goals. Doerr emphasizes the importance of setting clear, measurable objectives and tracking progress regularly. The book also highlights the importance of aligning goals across teams and organizations. It provides a practical framework for setting and achieving ambitious goals in various contexts, including business and personal life.
Good to Great
Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
Jim Collins
In 'Good to Great,' Jim Collins and his research team investigate why some companies achieve long-term greatness while others do not. The book identifies key concepts such as Level 5 Leadership, the Hedgehog Concept, a Culture of Discipline, and the Flywheel Effect. These principles are derived from a comprehensive study comparing companies that made the leap to greatness with those that did not. The research highlights that greatness is not primarily a function of circumstance but rather a result of conscious choice and discipline. The book provides practical insights and case studies to help businesses and leaders understand and apply these principles to achieve sustained greatness.
Product-Led Growth
How to Build a Product That Sells Itself
Wes Bush
In 'Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself,' Wes Bush explains the concept of product-led growth and how it differs from traditional sales-led models. The book provides insights on how to let customers experience the value of a product directly, thereby reducing the need for lengthy and expensive sales cycles. It covers topics such as choosing the right growth model (free trial, freemium, or demo), understanding market conditions, optimizing time-to-value, and delivering on the product's value. Bush also shares practical advice and frameworks, such as the MOAT Framework, to help businesses execute a product-led growth strategy effectively.
After analyzing dozens of software company acquisitions and scaling teams at Microsoft, Stijn Hendrikse has identified the specific patterns that separate companies achieving explosive growth from those that plateau at $5-10M ARR.
In this conversation, Wes Bush sits down with Stijn, who breaks down the T2D3 framework (Triple, Triple, Double, Double, Double) - not as a theoretical model, but as a practical roadmap he's seen work across his PE portfolio and enterprise scaling experience. This isn't about growth hacking tactics. But it's about understanding that each stage of rapid scaling requires completely different strategic muscles.
The discussion reveals why most founders fail at T2D3 by trying to solve the right problems at the wrong time, how to navigate the brutal transition from startup agility to enterprise execution, and the counterintuitive reality that people - not product or market - become your primary growth constraint after $20M ARR.
Key Highlights:
01:27: The T2D3 framework decoded
13:56: Why chasing new customers kills growth
17:51: The muscle-building phase that breaks most companies
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