Every founder knows what technical debt is.
Few talk about its equally dangerous term: Revenue Debt.
Revenue Debt is what happens when short-term growth impacts long-term scalability.
From my personal perspective, as somebody who helps early-stage startups every day with sales and GTM, I see revenue debt building every day.
All perfectly rational at the time.
But each move compounds complexity: fragmented data, inconsistent messaging, broken processes.
The cost isn't visible until momentum slows - right when you can least afford it.
Start with three simple evaluations of your current sales process:
1. Acquisition: Can you double the pipeline without doubling the effort? If not, you're scaling hustle - not process.
2. Conversion: Does everyone sell the same story? If not, you're scaling chaos — not clarity.
3. Retention: Does expansion happen naturally, or only with pressure? If it's the latter, your value narrative hasn't stuck.
Whenever the answer sounds like "it depends", you're carrying debt.
Revenue Debt isn't fatal, but it's crucial to put things right from the beginning. It must be repaid with intention.
Before scaling, make sure you sell the first 100K alone with your co-founders. You don't need reps, you need to sell and prove it to yourself and to your co-founders that you have "something" in your hands.
Avoid discounting and closing pressure techniques; sell the value from the beginning. Connect pains to value. Do not sell the features, sell the value attached to them.
The first people who will buy your product might not be the right ones. Understand your ICP and audit every quarter or so.
Remember the old saying, "what brought you here it won't bring you there", well, it's possible also with your clients.
Maybe you started selling to large companies, but now you see more traction in mid-market or smb.
You started selling to the CTO, but you understood along the way that going one step lower on the ladder might get you more meetings.
Audit your ICP consistently and adapt to your company's stage of growth.
When something is working and it's scaling - write it down.
You need to build your first sales playbook early. It doesn't need to be perfect; done is more important.
Avoid adding prospects who never reply to your outreaches to your CRM; add only people who are interested.
Have rules of engagement and a deal process, even if you are small.
Each deal must have contacts, company, notes and activities attached.
Build a CRM that your sales team want to use.
Revenue Debt compounds silently. It's the difference between growth that scales and growth that stalls.
Founders who win long-term don't just chase revenue - they design for it.
Regardless of whether you are 1M or 100K, start early.
Your company from the future will thank you.
Thanks for reading this far - see you all next week.
