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BEST LINKS
My this week’s favorites ✨
📈 Positioning — Why $10M SaaS companies get stuck in startup pajamas (Plateau Killer)
💰 Revenue — How onboarding leaks your revenue — and what to fix first (Design Revision)
👀 ICYMI — I launched my new website - read about the concept here (LinkedIn)
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DEEP DIVE
Your team just celebrated shipping another feature.🥳
Your revenue has been flat for 18 months. ☠️
I see this constantly at $3M–$15M ARR.
Everyone's exhausted.
Every week brings a new initiative.
Monday is a kickoff → Friday is a launch post.
The Slack is full of confetti and "we shipped it!" energy.✨
But the revenue line doesn't move.
Last month I talked to a founder running ads on 5 platforms simultaneously.
👉They redesigned their pricing page.
👉Launched on Product Hunt.
👉Hired a new Head of Growth.
👉Shipped three new features in one quarter.
Their team was depleted.
The CEO was quietly asking himself "what's wrong with us?"
At the board meeting, they showed the same number they'd been showing for 18 months.
This is what I call Execution Theater.
You're mistaking frantic activity for progress. The launches are real. The exhaustion is real. The growth isn't.
Why it happens
When revenue stalls at this stage, the instinct is always to do more: more features, more campaigns, more channels, more hires…
But more of the wrong motion isn't a strategy. It's running on a treadmill till you pass out.🫠
Here's what makes it so hard to see: your team isn't failing. They're executing exactly what you asked them to execute. The strategy is broken, not the people.
But when you're inside the theater, performing feels like progress. So you approve another campaign. Ship another feature. Open another channel.
And the revenue line stays flat.
The real question isn't "what should we ship next?"
It's "why isn't what we're already shipping compounding?"
But nobody wants to stop and ask why. Because stopping feels like losing.
So the theater continues.
How to spot it
Three signals you're in Execution Theater and not real growth work:
Your team can list everything they shipped last quarter but nobody can explain why a customer chose you over a competitor last week.
Your deals keep dying at the same point in the conversation - same stage, every time. You've blamed the deck, the pricing, the salesperson... But the buyer just doesn't see you as the obvious choice yet. And that problem isn't in the sales call. It's before it.
You tried the advice. Raise prices. Ignore competitors. Double down on content. It didn't work. So now you're just trying the next thing on the list.
If two of those hit - you've been solving the wrong problem for 18 months.
What the other side looks like
Stop for a second and picture this.
It's Monday morning.
You open your laptop and there's an actual signal.
You know which customers are your best-fit, why they chose you, and exactly what story to tell to find more of them.
Your team isn't waiting for your input on every decision because the strategy is clear enough that they can execute without you in the room.
The board meeting this quarter is different. You're not defending a flat number. You're explaining a compounding system - why it works, where it's heading, what you're doubling down on and why.
Your Head of Marketing isn't showing you brand awareness metrics while your pipeline sits empty. They're showing you deals that make sense, because buyers already know who you are before they get on a call.
You shipped one thing last month instead of seven. And it moved the needle more than the last two quarters combined.
That's not a fantasy. That's what happens when customers can actually tell the difference between you and everyone else.
The exhaustion doesn't come from working hard. It comes from working hard on the wrong things.
When the right things are clear, the work gets lighter. Not easier - lighter.
Because everything points in the same direction.
What to do about it
If your revenue has been stuck and your team is running at full speed, you don't need another campaign.
You need to know what's actually broken.
That's what the Revenue Shift Sprint is for:
4 weeks.
You walk away knowing exactly why growth stalled, which customers are actually worth chasing, and what to do first.
Not a deck. Not a workshop.
A decision.
If this sounds like your last 18 months, [apply for the Revenue Shift Sprint here].
THAT'S A WRAP
See you next week,
P.S. Know a founder stuck on the treadmill? Feel free to share.
That’s a wrap✨
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