By Robert Soffel, RevOps Expert Advisor at Notion Capital

Setting the Scene

If you’re sitting somewhere between $10M and $30M in ARR, you’re in what we call the ‘Build’ phase. It’s a transitional — sometimes painful — stage where complexity explodes, predictability gets harder, and growth starts to feel less like hustle and more like architecture.

It’s also where RevOps can have the biggest impact.

In this phase, we shift from founder-led sales to repeatable, scalable go-to-market motions. Stephen Millard describes it as ‘moving from chaos to order.” The goal? Establishing real go-to-market fit. That means making your growth predictable, your process repeatable, and your teams aligned.

This is the third in a series on RevOps with our RevOps expert in residence, Robert Soffel. Rob first came to our attention during his work with Onfido, collaborating with another of our Operating Partners, Andy Leaver. He’s also done great work with Trustpilot, Fidel API, and more recently, he's been helping several of our portfolio companies implement foundational RevOps. 

Key Takeaways

• Scale Requires Intentional Structure: Growth beyond $10M doesn’t happen by accident — building a scalable GTM engine demands deliberate design and operational discipline.
• Forecasting Reveals Truth: Accurate forecasting is less about hitting a number and more about understanding your market, your team, and how your business really works.
• Operational Debt is a Killer: Every shortcut compounds. Fixing data quality, misaligned tools, or vague processes gets more painful the longer you wait.
• Bottom-Up Planning Builds Credibility: Top-down targets fail without on-the-ground and bottom-up validation. Sanity checking assumptions with real-world inputs protects ambition from delusion.
• Data is Your Differentiator: From pipeline to product usage, clean, reliable data is what makes automation, AI, and performance possible at scale.

Why the Build Phase is so Challenging

Notion Capital’s research into more than 14,000 European startups revealed a sobering statistic: only 20% of companies that reach $10M in ARR go on to hit $30M. That makes the Build phase — between $10M and $30M — a kind of Death Valley in the startup journey.

So why is this stage so hard to survive?

1. GTM Complexity Outpaces Coordination
Your go-to-market motion gets more sophisticated — multiple segments, new products, new markets, new GTM motions — but the business hasn’t yet developed the muscle to operate in sync. Without intentional alignment, chaos compounds.

2. Premature Scaling Dilutes Focus
Companies often accelerate GTM (e.g. launch new regions, add a channel, hire too fast) before locking in repeatable success. The result is stretched teams, inconsistent messaging, and disjointed processes.

3. Operational Debt Becomes a Drag
Legacy systems, manual processes, and patchy data start to catch up. What worked at $5M breaks under the weight of $15M+. The longer you wait to address it, the more painful (and expensive) the fix becomes.

Before we dive into the initiatives, it’s worth asking — how can RevOps help companies navigate these challenges and avoid becoming part of the 80% that don’t make it? In my experience, there are five critical – and practical –  areas where RevOps can create structure, insight, and momentum.

1. Establish a GTM Operating Cadence

You’ve mapped your lifecycle, implemented a CRM, codified your qualification framework… so now what?

Most companies build infrastructure but fail to operationalise it. That’s where an operating cadence comes in: it’s how you bring your data — and your teams — to life.

There are two meetings I always recommend at this stage:

• The GTM Steering Meeting: A weekly, senior-level session that puts decision-makers in the same room to discuss blockers and accelerate deals. Think CROs, CFOs, Heads of Product, Partnerships — the works. The RevOps role here? Bring the insights, surface blockers and successes, and facilitate fast decisions.
  
  
• The Pipeline Committee: A more tactical group that aligns marketing, SDRs, sales, and CS around pipeline generation. The key here is shared ownership and common incentives — if everyone’s comped on pipeline or revenue, collaboration tends to follow.

These sessions aren’t revolutionary — they’re just incredibly effective when done properly.

2. Run a Rigorous Forecasting Process

Forecasting isn’t just about the number. It’s about understanding the “why” behind the number.

At $10M, you can get away with some fuzziness. At $30M, poor forecasting erodes trust — fast.

To bring more rigour into your forecasting, start with two things:

• A clearly defined sales process, with objective stage exit criteria and alignment with your buyer journey. Your “Stage 3” should mean the same thing to every rep.
  
  
• A sales methodology that’s actually adopted — not just fields in Salesforce. Whether it’s MEDDIC, SPICED or another framework, train your team properly, embed it in your stages, and make it part of your culture (yes, even the CEO should know the acronyms).

Forecasting is a muscle. Build it with structure, not vibes.

3. Bottom-Up Sanity Check Your Top-Down Plan

Every company builds a top-down plan in a spreadsheet. The smart ones sense-check it from the bottom up.

This is one of those lessons I learned the hard way. You might be aiming to double ARR — but do you have the pipeline? The reps? The ramp time? Is your ASP increase tied to reality, or just wishful thinking?

RevOps plays a key role in challenging assumptions:

• Do we have the headcount and ramp time to deliver the number?
• Is our pipeline coverage realistic given our average deal size and sales cycle?
• Are we counting on expansion, new geos, or new products before we’ve proven them?

This isn’t about being pessimistic — it’s about grounding ambition in operational feasibility.

4. Build and Communicate Your RevOps Roadmap

RevOps often ends up being a black box. Everyone knows they want “more from RevOps,” but no one really knows what that means.

A well-managed roadmap does three things:

• Shows what RevOps is working on and why.
• Helps stakeholders understand trade-offs and timing.
• Positions RevOps as a driver of strategic outcomes, not just system maintenance.

I like to think of RevOps as a product owner, with internal GTM teams as your users. A clear roadmap keeps your “customers” informed and engaged.

5. Obsess Over Data Quality

Every one of the initiatives above depends on one thing: clean, reliable data.

Without it, your GTM machine becomes sluggish. You can’t forecast accurately. You can’t align teams. And you definitely can’t layer on AI or automation.

Data quality isn’t sexy, but it’s foundational. Define your customer data model. Use enrichment tools where needed. Audit your systems. And above all — never treat it as a “set and forget” project. It’s a muscle you’ll keep building as you scale.

Final Thought

The Build phase is hard. You’re moving fast, layering on complexity, and trying to keep everyone aligned.

But with the right RevOps foundations in place — operational cadence, rigorous forecasting, bottom-up planning, visibility, and data quality — you set your business up not just to hit $30M, but to scale beyond it with confidence.

If any of these topics hit a nerve, I’m always happy to go deeper.

‍