Fund/Build/Scale

Episode 8 | Securiti CEO Rehan Jalil on scaling to $1M ARR (and beyond)

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Going from zero to $1M in annual recurring revenue is worth celebrating, but it’s no guarantee that your startup is on a path to success.

How long did it take to reach this milestone? How much did you spend to acquire each customer, and how many have renewed or extended their contracts?

When it comes to sales, repeatability equals success. To learn more about the tactics startups use to reach $1 million ARR (and beyond) I interviewed Rehan Jalil, CEO of Securiti.

Drawing from his experience as a three-time founder, we talked about setting up an initial sales motion, understanding and validating the problem you're solving, focusing on a specific audience to hone your value proposition, and building trust with early customers.

Episode breakdown:

  • “Before we even get to the revenue, it actually is important to understand what problem you're trying to solve.” [2:10]
  • “The only metric is repeatability.” [4:55]
  • “So we coined the term ‘privacy ops’… we wrote a book on it.” [7:35]
  • “Teams have to be very much in sync, which means information has to flow.” [10:39]
  • “By the time you get to MVP, you better have refined this thing. [12:40]
  • “Before you bring in sales teams, it’s important that you actually have the content for them.” [15:34]
  • “The bar is very high within the enterprise, and it takes much longer.” [18:29]
  • “If you don’t start with conviction, don’t do it.” [21:41]
  • “Find people who have a common interest on the problem that you're trying to solve.” [26:08]
  • “If they feel like you helped them… they can actually be advocates.” [28:14]
  • “Just putting things freemium out there doesn’t mean people are going to adopt it.” [30:41]
  • “Prioritize finding a viable use case and viable product strategy vs. rushing into something.” [32:36]

    • Thanks for listening!


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    Fund/Build/ScaleBy Walter Thompson
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