Founder at Upbeat 👉 Accelerating strategy so we can finally get our hands dirty | Revenue Architect | for B2B companies that want go to market, optimize revenue channels & build bowtie funnels

I help founder-led B2B companies at €1–5M ARR who are profitable but overwhelmed by growth choices, and want ONE focused go-to-market system that matches their market, pace, and ambition.

Story time. 

I went from being “fine at many things” to being known for one thing that compounds.

It took me almost 20 years.

Early in my career, I worked across sales, consultancy, and strategy in B2B and startups.

It looked like this:

- Chasing roles instead of building leverage
- Startups failing around me
- Being competent, but never the obvious standout

By 31, I’d been fired, quit jobs, and watched things fall apart more than once.

At my lowest point, I took a minimum-wage job because I didn’t know what my angle was anymore.

Surrounded by people who were “making it,” I kept thinking:

“Maybe this is just my ceiling.”

As a generalist, I didn’t have:

- A single lens to make decisions
- A clear point of view the market could repeat
- A system that compounded without me

So I stayed busy, but replaceable.

Lots of motion. Very little leverage.

So I changed how I operated.

I stopped being a generalist.
I stopped solving ten problems at once.
I focused on one thing:

Why revenue actually happens.

→ ICPs instead of personas
→ Buying behavior instead of opinions
→ Systems instead of tactics

At least, that was the plan.

I learned it takes time to earn “known for one thing.”

I went deep, shipped frameworks, tested them in the wild, and kept narrowing the lens.
Over time, founders started coming to me for ICP-driven GTM and Revenue Architecture.

Since then, I’ve worked with 250+ teams, mainly founder-led B2B SaaS between €1M and €5M ARR.

And the conversations shifted:
“We finally know who we’re for.”
“Our pipeline makes sense now.”
“We can explain why deals close, or don’t.”

This led me to build my approach at WhyThey.

If that sounds good, there are 3 ways I help founder-led B2B companies at €1–5M ARR build ONE focused go-to-market system:

→ GTM Audit + ICP Sprint to diagnose what's broken and find your ideal customer
→ Founder GTM Advisory to build your GTM motion with your team through bi-weekly sprints
→ Team Implementation for everything in #2, plus hands-on guidance to execute with your team

Check out my Featured section 💪

Douwe W.

How many customers does it take before your ICP becomes real?

Founders ask me this all the time.

Usually, because they’re stuck in between.
They have customers.
But not enough confidence to say, “this is our customer”.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth.

You can’t find your ICP with two great customers.
That’s just a story.
Not a pattern.

From experience, not hard science, you need at least 8 great customers before your first ICP starts to form.
Anything less is guessing.

Why this is so hard early on comes down to one thing.
Your GTM motion.

Different motions give you different levels of ICP clarity.

No touch, roughly 5 percent ICP clarity.

> This is pure PLG.
You learn from behavior only.
Usage.
Support tickets.
Chats.
Surveys.

You see what people do, not why they do it.

To get 8 core ICP customers at this level, you need roughly 160 customers.
Not because PLG is bad.
Because the signal is thin.

Low touch, roughly 10 percent ICP clarity.

You add light human contact.
Short discovery calls.
Quick demos.
Basic qualification.

Think around 80 customers.
ACV in the 5k to 15k range.

Retention starts to matter more than volume.
Patterns begin to show, but they’re still fragile.

Medium touch, roughly 20 percent ICP clarity.

Sales and CS start working together.
Discovery becomes structured.
Feedback loops exist.

ACV moves into the 15k to 50k range.
With around 40 customers, your ICP stops being a guess and starts becoming defensible.

High touch, roughly 30 percent ICP clarity.

Fewer customers.
Much richer data.

Multi-stakeholder discovery.
Regular CS debriefs.
Clear success definitions per account.

Around 25 to 30 customers is enough here.
Data turns into stories.
Stories turn into patterns.

Dedicated touch, roughly 40 percent ICP clarity.

Founder-led.
Deeply involved in GTM.
Strong domain and market knowledge within the team.

Every deal teaches you something.
Not just about fit.
But about timing, urgency, and risk.

This is where ICP clarity compounds fastest.

The strategic angle most teams miss.

Higher touch doesn’t just mean fewer customers.
It means more context per customer.

More domain knowledge.
More qualitative insight.
More signal per deal.

That’s why ICP clarity scales differently per motion.

You don’t define your ICP in a workshop.
You earn it through motion, customers, and repetition.

And yes, 8 great customers is the minimum.
Everything before that is educated guessing.

If you want help figuring out which motion gets you to ICP clarity fastest in your situation, reply “ICP” and I’ll walk you through it.

Douwe Wester 🟢 👉

Helping SaaS & Tech founders (500k–€5M ARR) nail their Customer Fit, Messaging & GoToMarket Motion so scaling becomes predictable | Ideal Customer-Led Growth | 👇

How many Clients does it take till ya get to the center of the...
(I’ve got to know)
How many Clients does it take till ya get to the center of the...
(Tell me...)
How many Clients does it take till ya get to the center of the...
(Oh oh)
How many Clients does it take till ya get to the center of the...
(Oooh oooh ah ah oh)

Turns out, how many touches you have with your clients
will determine how you acquire them
and how much you can charge them.

Here’s what that journey actually looks like 👇

1 | How many customers do you need before your ICP becomes real?
Each GTM motion reveals new data about your buyers.

No-touch → Build a behavioral ICP from analytics, churn, and usage.
Low-touch → Double down on high-retention micro-segments.
Medium-touch → Blend SPICED interviews with win/loss reviews to confirm fit.
High-touch → Treat every deal as a test case and iterate your ICP quarterly.
Dedicated-touch → Shift from ICP to Ideal Account Profile (IAP) and segment by org traits, not personas.

The higher the ACV, the clearer the ICP.

2 | ICP Fit Stages
Early customers → help you learn
Ideal customers → help you scale
More clients + more data = ICP Fit


3 | The Goldilocks Zone ICP
Too big → deals stall
Too small → revenue leaks
Your ICP lives in the middle ↳ where velocity meets profit.


4 | Profile Creation
Stack it!!!
→ ICP: What makes a customer ideal
→ SPICED Tiers: Who gets your best effort
→ Personas: Who’s really in the deal
→ Info Needs: What moves them forward

Each motion teaches you something new.
Each client brings you closer to clarity.

You don’t find your ICP by guessing.
You find it by graduating through each motion with intent.

P.S. I'll be dropping these individual BOMBs this week ;)

This weeks Ideal Customer-Led Series:
#2  of 5 | ICP FIt = https://lnkd.in/enA6jFTw
#3 of 5 | Goldilocks zone =https://lnkd.in/eHXsFTuF
#4  of 5 | ICP Profile Creation
#5  of 5 | How many customers?

Your next customer probably won’t buy from you this quarter.
But they will remember who helped them think more clearly today.

That’s the part most founders miss.

Pipeline problems don’t appear out of nowhere.
They show up months after you stopped doing the work that actually builds demand.

I see this constantly with SaaS founders.

Things felt fine, so visibility dropped.
You stopped showing up.
You treated growth like something you could turn back on when revenue slipped.

Now pipeline is dry, and you want results immediately.

You’re asking for outcomes on a timeline you didn’t earn.

Nobody likes hearing that.
But it’s usually true.

Most founders chase quick pipeline wins.
Cold outbound. More volume. More pressure.

Sometimes that helps.
Most of the time, it doesn’t save your ass.

Because 90% plus of your market isn’t buying right now.
They’re not even looking.

But they are watching 🌱

The founders who keep showing up
sharing useful perspective
talking about real problems
teaching before they pitch

are quietly planting seeds 🌱

Pipeline isn’t a vending machine.
It’s a garden 🌱

You can’t harvest what you never planted.
And if you only show up when you need pipeline, you’ll always be chasing it.

The best founders I see understand this.

🌱 Educate before they sell
🌱 Build trust before there’s intent
🌱 Play the long game on purpose

Because growth doesn’t come from hacks.
It comes from habit.

If you need pipeline right now,
you probably should’ve started earlier.

If you want pipeline six months from now,
start today 🌱

If you are between 1–5M in revenue

↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

What’s one thing you’re doing right now that won’t help this quarter, but will pay off later this year?

You don’t go from “any customer” to “ideal customer” overnight.
You earn your ICP one stage at a time.

Your ICP isn’t static.
It evolves with every deal, every dataset, and every motion.

Here’s what that journey actually looks like.

Early customers
They help you learn.

They show where value is real and where it breaks.
They expose friction in onboarding, gaps in positioning, and mismatched expectations.

They are your first dataset.
They are not your finish line.

Ideal customers
They help you scale.

By this point, ROI is proven.
Onboarding is tighter.
Positioning is sharper.

These customers start to look familiar.
Same pains. Same wins. Same retention curve.

Patterns emerge.

ICP fit
This is where success becomes predictable.

Sales, CS, and product can describe the buyer the same way in one sentence.
New customers behave like your best customers by design, not by luck.

More customers plus more data creates ICP-Fit.

It’s not a milestone you announce.
It’s a signal you confirm.

You don’t find ICP fit by guessing.
You earn it through motion, validation, and iteration.

This week’s Ideal Customer-Led Series:
#1 Base idea behind the series https://lnkd.in/eqaUhrNS

Up next -> The ICP Goldilocks Zone

PS. Credit to Maja Voje for coining the Early Customer Profile concept that started it all.

When I was a kid, I played a lot of baseball.

Like most kids, I wanted to swing for the fences.

Home runs.
Big plays.
Crowd goes wild.

What nobody explains early on is this.

You don’t win games on home runs.
You win when everyone gets on base.

One player reaches first.
Next one advances them.
Another brings them home.

It’s boring.
It works.

That’s how growth actually works too.

Improve 2% on all bases.

Grow Annual Recurring Revenue by 52.84%.

Sounds like clickbait.
It’s not.

If your conversion rate moves from 15% to 17%, that’s a 13% improvement.
For an early-stage SaaS company, that can compound into 50% plus ARR in a year.

Early growth doesn’t come from massive swings.
It comes from small, stackable wins.

A slightly better activation flow.
A clearer pricing page.
Fewer drop-offs in onboarding.

Just like baseball, not every play needs to be a home run.
Most wins come from getting to first base, over and over again.

Here’s the trap founders fall into.

They keep swinging harder.
More leads.
More traffic.
More noise at the top.

Meanwhile, runners are stranded on base.

If you’re early-stage, your advantage isn’t volume.
It’s efficiency.

Getting more out of the traffic, trials, and conversations you already have.

Because improving conversion by 2% is usually easier and more impactful than doubling traffic.

So the real question isn’t
“How do I hit a home run this quarter?”

It’s
“Where’s the easiest first base in my funnel right now?”

I turn messy GTM into ONE clear motion for B2B SaaS founders (€1–5M ARR), so growth becomes explainable and repeatable | Ideal Customer-Led Growth | 👇

Don't swing for the fences ⚾

Selection. Mutual commit. Onboarding. Impact. Expand.
Sounds like SaaS? It’s also how I fell in love.

I can’t seem to turn off the GTM brain, even in relationships.
And when I look back, the bowtie funnel fits a little too well.

Awareness
We noticed each other.
First glances. Slow smiles. Probably over coffee.
Definitely filtered.

Consideration
A few dates.
Sussing out values, attachment styles, and brunch orders.
No deck. Just vibes. And light stalking.

Selection
Choosing. Slowly, then all at once.
Not just “I like you,” but “I like where this is going.”
The spreadsheet of red flags? Surprisingly empty.

Mutual Commit
Labels. Exits closed. Shared Netflix login.
A roadmap (kind of).
Still messy. Like, who does the laundry kind of messy.

Onboarding
Moving in.
Cohabiting ecosystems. Calendar collisions. Towel negotiations.
It’s not all candles and playlists, or sometimes it’s moldy Tupperware.

PS. obviously getting Cats together is part of the onboarding, and dogs are expanding.

Impact
Real life shows up.
Family stuff. Struggles. IKEA assembly tests.
We figure out what “I got you” really means.

Expand
Kids (or houseplants that feel like kids).
Got a DOG
Joint rituals. Friends that become family.
A shared Google calendar with too many color codes.

There’s no pipeline stage for magic.
But it sneaks in somewhere between “Impact” and “Expand.”

Maybe love is a funnel.
Or maybe I need a day off.

Have a great day! Almost weekend

Everyone says “start narrow.”
Almost no one actually does it.

No wonder your strategy isn’t converting.

Pipeline isn’t the problem.
You’re selling to the wrong customers.
Or just not the right ones.

Sound familiar?

You’re not alone.

The same patterns keep showing up:

• Sales burns out on discovery calls that go nowhere
• Marketing creates interest, but zero intent
• Product keeps pivoting because “the market doesn’t get it”

You’re optimizing for the wrong customer.

This week on a discovery call:
“We want to market to all of them.”
Me: “Yeah, I get it. Your customers won’t.”

Last week, in a coaching session:
“But that excludes these customers.”
Me: “Correct. It’s not forever.”

Another one, data review:
“So… we’ve been targeting the wrong prospects this whole time?”
Me: “Annoying. But better now than later.”

Wrong size. Wrong GEO. Too many verticals.
That’s how growth dies.

Let’s fix that.

ICP too broad
Everyone’s interested.
Nobody buys.

Your website doesn’t fully resonate.
Prospects ask “is this for me?”
Deals stall at offer sent.
Revenue feels like pushing a boulder uphill.

ICP too narrow

Deals close fast.
Then the pipeline dries up.
The market’s too small to scale.
Expansion dies early.

Different paths.
Same destination.

Burned teams. Missed targets.

And then the blame game starts:
↳ Marketing blames sales
↳ Sales blames marketing
↳ Leadership burns budget

Meanwhile, a competitor with a sharp ICP compounds quietly.

Same market.
Same category.
Different clarity.

What if there’s a customer size where everything clicks?

Not the biggest TAM.
Not the tiniest niche.

The Goldilocks Zone ICP sits in the middle.

Narrow enough to speak with authority

Broad enough to scale without rewriting your GTM

Clear enough that product, marketing, and sales reinforce each other

When you hit it, something shifts.

One message
One discovery flow
One demo
A few offers
One onboarding

It resonates. Because they know it’s for them.

Quick diagnostic:

• Do your best customers teach you how to find the next ones?
• Do deals follow a repeatable path to close?
• Does your team know who to disqualify, and why?
• Are sales, marketing, and product aligned on the same customer?
• Are fast deals also your best deals long term?
• Do you know why you win and why you lose, early?

It’s not about total addressable market.
It’s about total actionable momentum.

That’s the clarity most teams are missing.

This weeks Ideal Customer-Led Series:
#2 of 5 | ICP FIt = https://lnkd.in/enA6jFTw
#3 of 5 | Goldilocks zone
#4 of 5 | ICP Profile Creation TOMORROW
#5 of 5 | How many customers?

I’ve watched Pulp Fiction way too many times.
Still have no idea what’s in that briefcase.

But I do know what should be in yours if you’re running a B2B company.

If you’re a founder sitting somewhere between €500k and €5M in ARR, this is for you.

You have a proven concept.
You’ve got paying customers.

But every new deal feels harder.
Because at that stage, growth feels off.

And somehow, progress still feels like pushing uphill.

Most founders I talk to are obsessed with the hunt.

New leads. 
New logos. 
New channels.

It feels productive. 
It feels like motion.

Meanwhile, your customers are already paying
And for some reason, they get less attention.

I get it.
New, New, New is kinda sexy.

It gives you the dopamine hit you probably need.

But when growth slows, and CAC keeps climbing, you need to wake up.

Adding new customers is linear.
Adding and retaining them is compounding.
That’s where real growth happens.

It’s Q1.

Everyone’s setting goals, 
chasing momentum, 
trying to build faster.

But the companies that will actually grow faster this year

They’re not chasing. 
They’re compounding.

TL;DR

Do this this week:
- Who's still in onboarding?
- Who's still in adoption?
- Who's really getting recurring Impact?
- Who's so happy you can ask for a case study?
- Who's so happy to refer you to others?
- Who's ready to renew?
- Who's ready to expand?

1. Make a Google Sheet. 
2. Put these questions horizontally.
3. Divide all your customers into these categories.
4. Make two types of plans 
a) What do we do when a client enters that stage
b) How do we progress the client to the next phase
5. Pick the area that needs the most attention.

Tom van Os 📈 any additions or suggestions?

You don’t need a new tactic.

Clarity brings all the clients to the yard. 
And they're like, "It's better than yours"
Damn right, it's better than yours
I can teach you, but I have to charge

Would love to hear the CS community about how to transition from focusing on sales to a full bowtie focus.

Helping SaaS & Tech founders (500k–€5M ARR) nail their customer fit, messaging & GTM motion so scaling becomes predictable | ‘That ICP Guy’ | Ideal Customer-Led Growth | 👇

How niche is too niche?

Here’s how I think about it for early-stage SaaS teams.

Your market should be big enough to get investors interested.
Your ideal customer should feel almost uncomfortably specific.

The narrower you go:

→ Sales gets simpler
→ Your story gets sharper
→ The path to €1M ARR gets shorter

That’s the Goldilocks Zone of early GTM.

In astronomy, it’s the orbit where life can exist.
Not too hot.
Not too cold.
Just right.

Startups have one too.

Too broad, and your message turns into noise.
Too narrow, and you run out of oxygen.

The answer isn’t “bigger.”
It’s focus.

One clear customer.
One clear problem.
One clear way you win.

Below €1M ARR, that’s where leverage is built.

One story.
One buyer.
One repeatable sales motion.

Everything else comes later.
New segments. Expansion. Adjacent markets.

But not before the first million.

👉 How close are you to your Goldilocks Zone?

Artem Smirnov

CEO at Smirnov Consulting Group 👉 We build client acquisition systems for B2B businesses 🔹 B2B Growth Consulting & Marketing 🔹 We stand with Ukraine 🇺🇦

👉 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗱𝗼: I help B2B companies get more leads, sales and clients every single month. To do that I'm using my proven strategies: 𝟭) LinkedIn marketing and lead generation campaigns, 𝟮) Cold email campaigns to increase volume up to 1 000+ contacts per day or even more (depending on your goals).𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿:Our proven strategies work for businesses selling high-ticket products and services like:-B2B tech companies,-Financial services companies,-Advertising agencies,-Software development companies,-Marketing agencies,-SEO agencies,-Branding agencies,-UX design studios,-B2B consultants,-Advisors,-Experts,-Professional service providers,-Public speakers,-Business coaches,-Management consulting firms,-Construction companies.**I've worked with many companies and entrepreneurs for the last 12 years, including small businesses and even big brands like Google, HubSpot, T-mobile, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Stripe, IBM, Skoda, MaxMara, Century 21, Lotto, Nestle, KTM, Pirelli, Fisher and Kappa and many many more.**✅ 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗺𝘆 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆:- Software development company -&gt; scaled from $7.1 mil to $24.3 mil (revenue) in just 12 months- UX design company -&gt; scaled from £550k to 4.2 mil (revenue) in 12 months- SEO agency -&gt; helped them generate $3.1 mil in new contracts in just 11 months- Facebook ads agency -&gt; $2.6 mil in new contracts in 12 months- Financial services company -&gt; $31.1 mil in new revenue from the leads we generated for them in 10 months- IT consulting firm (+software development) -&gt; $18.4 mil (revenue) from new projects they got in just 12 months𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀: ✔️ 1-on-1 Coaching / Consulting✔️ Group Coaching✔️ Done-For-You Services: hire my team to generate leads and sales for you𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘁: - send me a DM here on LinkedIn to see if we are a good fit- or email me at: artem@smirnovartem.com𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗺𝘆 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 - 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗠𝟴 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺𝘂𝗹𝗮 - 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲:https://smirnovartem.com/the-book/𝗪𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲:smirnovartem.com𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹:contact@smirnovartem.com

www.smirnovartem.com
𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽: B2B businesses and high-ticket service providers:

-B2B tech companies,
-financial services companies,
-software development companies,
-marketing agencies,
-SaaS companies,
-branding agencies,
-SEO agencies,
-UX design studios,
-B2B consultants,
-advisors,
-experts,
-professional service providers,
-public speakers,
-business coaches,
-management consulting firms.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗱𝗼:
I help you get more B2B clients and scale your business extremely fast. The goal is to help you get 10, 30, 50 or even 100 clients every single month (depending on your goals and the size of your team).

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘁:
-Send me a DM here on LinkedIn
-Or send an email to: contact@smirnovartem.com

Over 2,000 businesses have hired Artem Smirnov for speaking, consulting, training or outsourced marketing services including Google, HubSpot, T-mobile, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Stripe, IBM, Skoda, MaxMara, Century 21, Lotto, Nestle, Lukoil, Gazprom, Raiffeisenbank, KTM, Pirelli, Fisher and Kappa and many many more.

🔹 SPECIALTIES:
| B2B Lead Generation | LinkedIn Marketing | Social Selling | Social Media Marketing | Digital Marketing

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The Battle

Douwe W.

Artem Smirnov

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The Battle

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Artem Smirnov

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