IDEAS / POST
From $500k to $1M: Why tactics won’t deliver, but systems will
The final post in our growth series on building revenue architecture, inspired by Gregory Kennedy’s Startup Growth talk at Seattle Tech Week.
As you grow from $0 to $100k, you’re trying to see what catches your ICP’s eye. From $100k to $500k, you want to scale what worked. But as you move closer to $1M in revenue, continued growth becomes a matter of operationalizing everything. Less trial, more test and tune.
At this stage, you need systems, or you get burned out.
This is the third post in my series breaking down Gregory Kennedy’s startup growth framework. In the first two posts, I explored his advice for getting from $0-100k and scaling from $100k-500k. This final stage, the push to $1M+, requires a fundamentally different mindset shift.
The hidden truth about crossing the chasm
Many founders at $500k ARR see sales execution as their barrier to growth. They’ve built something brilliant, found product-market fit with early adopters, and are now trying to scale their selling tactics to reach mainstream buyers.
The problem is, mainstream buyers don’t want the same thing as early adopters. Early adopters value innovation and the winning edge; mainstreamers are looking for trust and relationships. As with all trusting relationships, time and consistency are key. Not only does the messaging need to shift, but the focus needs to be on the long game.
Kennedy’s tactics, through a systems lens
Kennedy outlined several solid approaches for the $500k-$1M stage. Let me walk through some of his recommendations and show you how to think about them systematically:
1. Multi-channel outreach sequences
Kennedy’s advice: Create personalized outreach for 100 perfect-fit decision-makers across multiple touchpoints.
The systems perspective: This isn’t about executing one campaign. It’s about building a repeatable prospect research → outreach → follow-up → conversion engine that your team can operate without you.
By systematizing the outreach (which medium for which message in the sequence, for example), you can begin to measure where engagement drops off, and tweak your approach to drive up numbers.
2. Content collaboration partnerships
Kennedy’s advice: Partner with 3-4 complementary startups for cross-promotion.
The systems perspective: This is as much about building the foundation of what your brand stands for, as it is about crafting partnerships systematically.
Partnerships fail when they’re tactical one-offs, or the partners are a mis-fit. They succeed when you build systematic frameworks for identifying, evaluating, and executing on partnership opportunities.
This means vetting your potential partners for fit, establishing ground rules around who-says-what-to-whom-and-when, and agreeing to share results. Bringing brand initiatives to the world is challenging enough without the complications of working with someone whose interests (and definition of success) may differ from yours.
3. Targeted advertising
Kennedy’s advice: Kennedy suggests uploading key accounts and running targeted campaigns, whether that be targeting by their clients, their geography, or their industry.
The systems perspective: Targeting works when it’s part of a broader system that includes account research, personalized content creation, multi-channel orchestration, and systematic follow-up. The ad spend is just one component of a revenue architecture that reliably moves high-value prospects through your funnel. The important thing to keep in mind is that every element needs to be seen as part of the system – which means you should be able to test and tweak each element to improve the system’s results.
The real challenge: Moving from product-led to brand-led growth
Kennedy is a powerful marketer, and understands that tactics are just part of the puzzle. The real shift is from product-led to brand-led thinking, from pushing sales with brute force to pulling leads with attraction and persuasion. Geoffrey Moore literally wrote the book on this. ‘Nuff said.
What this means for your next 90 days
If you’re at the $500k level and resonating with this systems perspective, here’s how to start thinking architecturally:
Week 1-2: Audit your current tactics. What elements can you actually measure? Where are you personally involved in ways that keep your selling mired in bespoke, personal approaches, instead of systematization?
Week 3-6: Pick one high-impact area and build it into a repeatable system. Document the process, create templates, identify what works consistently.
Week 7-12: Train someone else to execute your system. Measure whether it generates similar results without your direct involvement.
This isn’t about abandoning Kennedy’s tactical insights. It’s about building them into systematic capabilities that compound over time.