Q: What’s it like building a company and seeing the first big sum of money come in?
A few key milestones to me in SaaS really stood out:
- The first $50k deal. This might sound small today, but closing our first customer at $50,000 a year proved we had a viable business. Most of our other customers at the time were tiny ($12-$99 a month). One $50k customer isn’t enough. But most folks get that once you close 1, you can close 2, and then 5, and then 10 …
- The first $250k+ customer check. Actually, it was a multi-year deal so it was $600k+. I blew it up to something like 5′ x 3′ and pasted it behind the sales rep’s desk. So everyone knew. Then, everyone believed.
- The first $1m bookings month. $1m is a lot of bookings. Once you get there, then everyone sees. They see you can’t be stopped. That you have a real brand, and a real company. And that you control your destiny.
- The first time getting profitable (for real). Then you know you can go the distance — on your terms.