Key strategic breakdown from Sangram Vajre on Going Up Market Might Be the Worst Thing You Can Do.
Practical application grounded in the 8 Pillars of the GTM Operating System.
Actionable framework for B2B executive teams, founders, and revenue operators.
Video Chapters & Key Moments
Key Questions Answered in This Masterclass
What are the core insights from "Going Up Market Might Be the Worst Thing You Can Do"?
Sangram Vajre breaks down the commercial strategy, organizational diagnosis, and operational steps required to solve this go-to-market challenge using GTM OS.
View Full Video Transcript (Cleaned & Formatted)
Stuck at $10 million in revenue isn't a customer size problem, it's a go-to-market system problem, and most CEOs get this wrong before they even realize it. I told a room full of founders in a recent CEO roundtable that going up market to fix a stuck growth number might be the worst first move they could make. The room went quiet because everyone had the exact same question.
The real issue at $10 million is that go-to-market still lives in a slide deck instead of a system, an ICP slide instead of real qualifying criteria, a market slide instead of an actual market investment map. I walked through five specific steps to fix that, locking in a sharp ICP, building a market investment map, picking one or two go-to-market motions instead of running all six at once, assigning real ownership instead of just titles, and treating retention as a go-to-market problem instead of handing it to customer success.
Do this in order, and bigger logos stop being the goal, they become the natural result of a system that actually works without you in the room.
⏱ TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Stuck at $10 million? Here's why "bigger customers" isn't the answer
(00:29) The CEO roundtable question everyone in the room had
(01:14) Why going up market might be the worst first move
(01:50) My Terminus story, the healthcare deal that broke our product architecture
(03:19) Why go-to-market at $10M lives in slides, not systems
(04:34) What I learned going from a $10M company to a $10B company at Salesforce
(05:36) Slide deck vs. system, the market investment map
(06:04) Slide deck vs. system, a sharp ICP vs. an ICP slide
(06:17) Slide deck vs. system, picking your go-to-market motions
(07:24) The 5 things to do if you're stuck at $10 million
(07:35) Step 1, lock in your ICP, no vibes
(07:59) Step 2, build your market investment map
(08:38) Step 3, pick 1 or 2 go-to-market motions, not all six
(09:44) Step 4, assign go-to-market ownership, not just titles
(10:14) Step 5, build the post-sale play, retention is a GTM problem
(11:17) Why bigger logos become a natural result, not the goal
(12:14) Take the free GTM assessment at runongtmos.com/move
📌 Take the free GTM assessment to see what's actually keeping you stuck at 10M: runongtmos.com/move
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