Entrepreneur and investor Jason Lemkin says that there are 4 stages to a business:

1. First customers: when you’re looking for Product-Market fit;
2. Under $1M: when it’s not really repeatable, but you have revenue coming in;
3. Over $2M: when the engine is starting to work and you can start spending;
4. Over $10M: when you’ve sortof made it.

Easy, right?

I love these simplifications. Maybe it’s that easy if you’ve done it many times before (Jason has!), but to most entrepreneurs it won’t be easy.

The people you’ll need to engage with or sell to will be completely different in these 4 phases. In fact, the early adopter market – the people you should be targeting at the start – just won’t allow you to reach $10M in annual revenue.

That’s why Crossing the Chasm is a much better way to look at what needs to get done. [Read on]