Hey - it’s Alex!
If you’re a first-time founder going from 0 to 1 million ARR, it’s tough to figure out your GTM, especially when there is so much information available about what you should and shouldn’t do.
I’ve helped over 25 founders in the last three years who have gone through this exact 0 to 1 stage, and therefore, I’m sharing my top 9 GTM Infographics that are especially useful at this stage.
👉 It’s a mini GTM foundation masterclass with an expected reading time < 5 minutes.
Let’s go through these one by one and fix your GTM.
In case you missed the last 3 episodes:
✅ Why pitches fail (+ fix yours in 11 slides)
✅ The perfect pricing page guide
✅ How to create strong lead magnets
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1. GTM Myths
Before you start with anything, it is important to unlearn and debunk a few myths you might be believing as an early-stage founder.
Your first task is to identify which ones you’ve been believing in and debunk them.
2. 360° GTM Audit
With the myths out of the way, the best place to start is to understand the state of your current GTM.
❌ What is going wrong
✅ What is going right
💪 What do you need to double down on?
Answer all these questions using this 360° GTM Audit.
You need to check the health of your:
1️⃣ GTM Strategy - These are your core foundational pillars. Until these aren’t in place, no amount of GTM tactics is going to work for you.
E.g., if your ICP isn’t clear, you won’t know whom you’re selling to. In that case, no amount of marketing is going to fix sales for you!
2️⃣ GTM Execution - Once your strategy is in place, focus on execution to take your startup to the next level.
P.S. If you want me to audit your GTM, let’s chat here.
👉 Deep dive into GTM audit
3. The 3 Stages till 1 mil ARR
You might think 0 to 1 mil ARR is just one stage. I believe there are 3.
1️⃣ Hustle Mode - You’re trying to get your first 10/100 customers and throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. This is your GTM experimentation stage.
2️⃣ Focus Mode - Now, you have to go beyond your first 10/100 customers, and the only way to do this is by focusing on 1 ICP, 1 use-case, 1-2 channels.
Stages 1️⃣ and 2️⃣ combined are what I call the GTM Foundations.
3️⃣ Expansion Mode - This is once you’ve hit Product-Market Fit (cleared the previous two stages), and now, you’re ready for expansion!
4. GTM Foundations for SaaS
The foundation of a strong GTM are 7 key elements.
1️⃣ ICP Clarity
2️⃣ Positioning Clarity
3️⃣ Messaging that resonates
4️⃣ (Simple) pricing
5️⃣ 1-2 growth channels that drive the pipeline
6️⃣ Repeatable sales motion
7️⃣ Buyer Journey Clarity
Unless your foundations are in place, scaling to Expansion Mode will be extremely difficult for you. Make sure you understand each pillar of your GTM Foundation and take time to build it before you expand.
👉 Check out my 3-part GTM Foundation series
5. GTM Foundations Checklist
If you’re on your way to build GTM Foundations, use this checklist to know what you need to develop and execute.
The goal here is to get to Product-Market Fit by making sure you have established:
PMF = Problem-Solution Fit + GTM Fit
6. Your ICP changes over time
The first GTM Foundation, ICP, is where most misconceptions lie. So let’s understand the key concepts of your ICP.
Your TAM is not your ideal customer profile. Especially if you’re VC-funded and talk a lot about the HUGE market, it’s a common mistake.
Your TAM is something you will (eventually) win in 5+ years, but not today. So live with the fact that your ICPs will change over time.
Think about it this way: Your ICP today brings you to your next milestone.
Once you hit the next milestone, you can revisit your ICP.
👉 Use my ICP Framework to get clarity on your ideal customer.
7. The Power of Niching Down
As we saw above, the path to 1€ and then to 10€M ARR isn’t about maximizing your total addressable market. It’s about dominating a specific segment.
When you focus on one specific segment:
✅ Your marketing message becomes crystal clear
✅ Your sales team becomes highly efficient
✅ Your product roadmap gets laser-focused
✅ Your customer success becomes predictable
✅ Your referrals start flowing naturally
Most importantly, you build deep expertise in solving specific problems for specific customers. This expertise compounds over time, creating a moat that competitors can’t easily cross. That is the power of niching down.
8. How to find your ICP
Here, it is important to understand that your early customers are not your ICP; they are your ECP (Early Customer Profile). To get to your ICP from your ECP, you need to:
1️⃣ Collect data of your customers
2️⃣ Break down your customer base into segments and
3️⃣ Analyze them against metrics that are indicators of ‘better fit’
We call them ‘‘better-fit’ Indicators (aka. Winning indicators).
Generally speaking, your ‘best-fit’ customers:
💪 have higher product engagement
💪 show better commercial metrics
💪 are less support-intensive
💪 are better aligned with your strategy and values/culture
👉 Learn step by step how to analyze your customers to find your best fit customers
9. Don’t copy the big players
What works for €500M+ ARR companies will kill your startup at €0-1M.
You don’t have the same data & resources (money, time & runway) they have.
Hopefully, these infographics have given you a great idea about how to execute your GTM to go from 0 to 1 mil ARR and beyond.
And if you want to deep dive a bit more, I’ve created my free GTM library with 50+ Infographics that will help you on your 0 —> 1€ million ARR journey.
Happy growth 🚀
3 ways I can help you grow your SaaS to €1 million ARR 👇
1️⃣ Use my free GTM library with 50+ free resources (guides, templates, workbooks, and tools) to build a strong GTM foundation (helped 5000+ SaaS leaders)
2️⃣ Get a 360° GTM audit of your status quo + a custom 6-month action plan
3️⃣ Work 1-on-1 with me - GTM Advisory for SaaS founders from €0 to €1 million ARR