In this episode of Selling the Cloud, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Mark Roberge, founding CRO at HubSpot and author of The Sales Acceleration Formula, to unpack why most companies scale at the wrong time and with the wrong signals. Mark introduces a stage-specific, data-driven framework for moving from product market fit to go to market fit, and explains why managing to readiness and retention beats chasing top-line revenue alone.

Mark breaks down how founders and boards get trapped copying outdated playbooks, why product market fit is often misunderstood, and how to define it through value realization, not just revenue. He also shares a practical approach for finding a leading indicator of retention, then translating unit economics into clear operating KPIs that make scaling repeatable, profitable, and measurable.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why scaling “scientifically” requires managing to readiness and retention, not just revenue growth.
• The difference between market-message fit and true product market fit.
• How to define product market fit using retention and value realization.
• How to build a leading indicator of retention using a simple “P percent do event every T time” framework.
• Why startups should delay scalable processes until product market fit is proven.
• What go to market fit actually means and how unit economics define it.
• How to translate LTV:CAC targets into practical KPIs like quota, close rates, and meeting volume.
• How to diagnose pipeline problems as readiness issues vs volume issues using conversion patterns across reps.

Key Topics:

• The danger of copying borrowed playbooks from past unicorns
• Readiness pacing vs hiring based on fundraising timelines
• Product market fit as value creation, not revenue milestones
• Leading indicators of retention and early customer success signals
• Go to market fit and unit economics as the profitability test
• Turning unit economics into a repeatable go to market formula
• Quick tests for pipeline issues: lead quality vs sales execution
• Why small funnel improvements compound faster than single big swings

Guest Spotlight: Mark Roberge

Mark Roberge is the founding CRO at HubSpot, where he helped scale the company from zero to IPO. He is co-founder and managing partner at Stage 2 Capital, a Harvard Business School senior lecturer focused on sales and go-to-market strategy, and the best-selling author of The Sales Acceleration Formula. His newest book, The Science of Scaling, distills decades of research into a stage-specific roadmap for scaling with measurable readiness.

Resources & Mentions:

• Book: The Science of Scaling (pre-order available)
• Book: The Sales Acceleration Formula
• Concept: Product Market Fit vs Go to Market Fit vs Growth and Moat
• Framework: “P percent of customers do event every T time”
• Example: Slack’s activation benchmark (high-volume team messaging)
• SaaS Metrics: Retention, Leading Indicator of Retention, LTV:CAC, Payback Period
• Reference: Winning by Design and compounding funnel improvement

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