The Lean Startup Lie: The Missing Phase in B2B Growth

10:35 am
-
11:00 am

Everyone talks about Product-Market Fit (PMF) as the milestone to watch. But for B2B founders—especially in complex categories like cybersecurity—PMF is not the signal to scale. Instead, it's the point where a new challenge begins: can this product be sold repeatably, by someone other than the founder?

In this session, we break down the myth of PMF and the chaos that follows when founders scale prematurely. You'll walk away with a framework for testing repeatability, validating your GTM, and building a sales engine that actually works—before hiring the wrong team or burning through cash.

>Why PMF doesn't equal repeatable revenue (especially in B2B) >The hidden stage between PMF and scale: the repeatability gap >How to test sales motion before building your sales team >Common growth-stage pitfalls and how to avoid them >What "founder-product fit" and "sales-model fit" really look like

Session Agenda

  • Why PMF doesn't equal repeatable revenue (especially in B2B).
    ‍
  • The hidden stage between PMF and scale: the repeatability gap.
    ‍
  • How to test sales motion before building your sales team.
    ‍
  • Common growth-stage pitfalls and how to avoid them.

Speakers

Matt Calligan

Director of Growth Markets

ArmorText

Matt Calligan

Director of Growth Markets

ArmorText

Matt Calligan is the Director of Growth Markets at ArmorText, a secure communication platform designed for crisis management and incident response.

Matt was born into a sales and entrepreneurial environment, growing up watching his grandfather and father both start and - more importantly - fail at multiple businesses. His sales experience started as a child helping his mom and dad print and mail marketing materials, cold walk neighborhoods and even make cold calls from their dining room.  

Matt has been in a quota carrying role for 25 years and for the past 12 years has focused exclusively on helping founders of security SaaS startups design and implement scalable revenue models. He has a B.S. in Finance from VCU and in his minimal spare time, tries to keep his pre-Revolutionary War home from falling down and five adopted bulldogs from eating all his furniture.

‍

About this Session's Track

CEO Summit (Founders, CEOs, Investors)

A forum for cybersecurity founders, CEOs, and investors to share visionary leadership lessons, tackle board‑level challenges, and explore partnership opportunities at the company’s highest level.