How Not To Die During The $1M to $10M Journey | Why Specialization Beats Founder Magic | Why Hiring Carbon Copies of Yourself Cannot Work | Why Pipeline Generation Solves Everything | Guillaume Jacquet, CEO & Co-Founder, Vasco

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Jun 30, 2025

Guillaume Jacquet, co-founder and CEO of Vasco, brings expertise from scaling B2B startups through the crucial $1M-$10M journey. He discusses the perils of relying on 'founder magic' and the necessity of specialization in hiring. Jacques reveals why customer success should precede sales and the importance of a structured sales pipeline. He highlights that 80% of growth success is science, not magic, insisting that startups should avoid reinventing the wheel to achieve predictable outcomes.

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INSIGHT

Founder Magic Is Not Scalable

Founder magic that gets you to $1M ARR can't be replicated by simply hiring like the founder.
Scaling from $1M to $10M ARR is 80% science and 20% magic, requiring codified predictable systems.

ADVICE

Hire Specialists, Not Clones

Avoid hiring carbon copies of yourself; hire specialized people for lead generation, closing, onboarding, and customer success.
Specialization enables faster ramp-up, accountability, and scalable growth.

ADVICE

Narrow Your ICP Methodically

Narrow your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) by analyzing customers who gain value fastest and stay loyal.
Use metrics like time-to-value and customer satisfaction surveys to refine ICP before scaling.

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Most startups die between $1M-$10M ARR because they try to reinvent the wheel.

A lot is written about the $0 to $1M ARR journey. A lot less about the $1M to $10M journey - even though that’s where lots of promising companies die. Most of what it takes to get to $10M ARR follows established patterns. Yet, too many startups try to reinvent the wheel and die as a consequence.

In this episode, Guillaume Jacquet walks us through the steps you have to take as a founder as you move from founder-led sales to a predictable revenue engine. Learn why 80% of scaling from $1M to $10M is science, not magic, and discover the counterintuitive hiring sequence that most founders get wrong.

Guillaume Jacquet is Co-founder and CEO of Vasco, the revenue architecture platform for VC-backed startups to maximize go-to-market efficiency. He's built and scaled multiple B2B companies through the critical $1M-$10M journey and codified the repeatable systems that work.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:
00:00 - Why building $100M starts with forgetting about $100M
01:17 - The founder magic trap that kills growth at $1M ARR
03:13 - How to surgically narrow your ICP when everyone says go broader
05:49 - Why your best customers move from purchase to value fastest
10:16 - The impossible metrics problem when salespeople do everything
13:18 - Mapping the real B2B customer journey most founders ignore
15:05 - Why customer success must be your first hire (not sales)
17:48 - The counterintuitive order for removing yourself from revenue
20:01 - When predictable pipeline generation solves everything
22:24 - Why full-stack sales reps destroy accountability and growth
24:31 - How your ICP dictates your entire go-to-market motion
32:31 - The exact close rate benchmarks that signal go-to-market fit
37:26 - When to split implementation from retention for velocity
39:17 - Why expansion specialists unlock 140% net revenue retention
42:16 - The two paths from $10M to $50M (and why most choose wrong)
44:48 - The 18-month hiring mistake that killed his first company