“We have 5 big customers!” It’s a statement that sounds like success, especially for an early-stage B2B company. But here’s the crucial question: Is that success scalable?
More often than not, the answer is a resounding no.
Many early-stage companies selling $100k+ fit normally face this scenario. They have a handful of big clients and believe they have product-market fit (PMF). The reality, however, is that they’re solving different problems for different customers, a clear sign that they are still searching for the holy grail of repeatability and scalability.
This scattered approach leads to a fractured product roadmap, unfocused GTM efforts, and a lot of internal stress. It also sets up a company’s first sales team for failure.
Hint: without repeatability of use cases, you are unlikely to graduate from founder led sales motions.
The Misleading Metric: Product-Customer Fit
Think about this: You have a high-ACV product and five customers each paying you $200k. That’s $1 million in ARR. Are you ready to scale? Not necessarily. I’ve seen companies with $5million that are basically software dev houses because they have a handful of customers with completely different products.
The key question you should be asking is: Did all five customers buy for the same reason?
For most early-stage startups, the answer is no. Each customer likely had a slightly different need, and because the deal sizes were so large, the company was able to be flexible and “customise” a solution.
This is not product-market fit; it’s product-customer fit, repeated five different times. It’s an unsustainable model that masks the real problem. This is the same reason why most businesses (SaaS and beyond) struggle to case. Bespoke or customised solutions equal different use cases, which in turn makes what s great for one customer, impossible to repeat, let alone scale.
Why Repeatability Is the Only Path to Scalability
Imagine you have two sales teams:
- Business 1’s sales team has to sell to four different Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs), solve for four different use cases, use varying messaging, and follow multiple sales processes.
- Business 2’s sales team has to sell to one single ICP, solve one use case, with one clear message and one well-defined sales process.
Which team do you think is going to be more successful?
SaaS 2’s model is built on repeatability. They solve one problem, for one ICP, with one solution. This focus makes it infinitely easier to build an early GTM engine that can actually scale.
Finding a Market, Not a Collection of Customers
You don’t want to collect customers like you collect Pokemóns. In fact, you don’t have to catch’em all. A disparate collection of customers who all want different things is not the way to play. You want a market.
A true market is a group of customers who:
- Shop and buy the same way.
- Share the same fundamental problem.
- Want the same solution.
This is why the common advice to “talk to your customers!” can be misleading if you don’t understand this principle. If you simply ask different customers what they want without first identifying a single, cohesive market, you’ll end up building a “Frankenstein” product that’s impossible to sell or market effectively.
Ultimately, having 5 or 10 clients tells only a fraction of the story. Your goal isn’t just to get customers, it’s to achieve product-market fit, where you’ve identified a repeatable model that can grow on its own. Everything else is just product-customer fit.
Want to talk through your PMF journey, share ideas, grab a coffee? Get in touch!
read next
Pre-Seed [✓]: What’s next?
Building Startups for the long haul: A shift from quick wins to an efficient growth mindset
Understanding Go-To-Market Motions: Something Something-LG