How we went from zero to $1.2M ARR in 14 months — and what I'dHow we went from zero to $1.2M ARR in 14 months — and what I'd
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Aditya Ramteke
• Apr 22
How we went from zero to $1.2M ARR in 14 months — and what I'd do differently.
When I joined Axionray as Founding Head of Sales, there was no pipeline, no process, and no playbook. Just a product with real potential in the manufacturing SaaS space.
Here's what the first 90 days looked like:
Week 1-3: ICP definition. We had to get specific — not "manufacturing companies" but switchgear, automotive, and renewable energy verticals. The tighter the ICP, the faster the deals moved.
Week 4-8: Built outbound from scratch. Cold sequences, LinkedIn, referrals. Every message tested, iterated, and tracked.
Week 9-12: First 3 deals closed. Average deal size $45K. 60-90 day cycles.
By month 14: 27 deals closed. $1.2M in revenue. 98% customer retention. 120% of quota. Team grew to 15 people.
The biggest lesson? Pipeline quality beats pipeline quantity every time. We ran MEDDIC on every deal. Deals that didn't qualify got disqualified early — which freed us to go deeper on the ones that mattered.
The HubSpot RevOps build was the second most important thing we did. When your forecast is 80% accurate, you stop guessing and start managing.
If you're a founder trying to get from 0 to your first $1M ARR — I've been there. Happy to talk.
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