We’re shutting down Growblocks, here’s why

And a few things I've learned in the process.

We’ve made the tough decision to wind down Growblocks.

We’re returning the remaining cash to investors and ensuring our employees and customers get through this transition. If you’re looking for awesome talent, please ping me, a few folks are still available.

I wanted to take this opportunity to share one key learning on why I think we didn’t succeed.

Looking back, there’s plenty of things I’d do differently. There’s also plenty of plausible reasons why we didn’t succeed. But one particular reason stands out, and I think it might be interesting for you:

RevOps didn’t become the Strategic Role we thought it would

When we started Growblocks, the RevOps movement was on the rise.

Gartner predicted almost all companies would have it by 2025 and RevOps was one of the fastest-growing roles on LinkedIn.

And just like the VP Sales needs a tool: Salesforce,

And the VP Marketing needs a tool: Marketo,

And the VP CS needs a tool: Gainsight,

We believed that the VP RevOps also needed a tool: Growblocks.

The bet was that RevOps would grow to significance in an organization similar to FP&A. Being the right-hand person to the CRO (or even CEO) and being involved in strategic decisions.

Especially in a time when efficiency was on everyone’s mind, this should be a thing, right?

Well, what we found is that - for now - RevOps is still really mostly SalesOps. Very focused on a Sales Forecast or setting up the CRM. And also being seen as exactly and only that by the VP Sales and the rest of the leadership.

For a supporting role like this, why would they need a dedicated tool for $15-20k? Why can’t they just do all of that in a spreadsheet or BI … or why are they doing these things at all?

And while we had hundreds of great disco and demo calls with RevOps leaders, most of the time, the process died when they tried to explain to leadership why this was important to drive the business.

But there were exceptions

We had close to 30 customers spending real money on our Software. So, how did those RevOps professionals break through internally? 

The difference we learned was that one out of 2 things needed to be true:

1. RevOps knew how to sell internally, understood whom to influence, and how to build a solid case. 

2. Their Boss “got it”. I had one CRO once ask me “what do you mean ‘before pipeline’?”. There are plenty of bosses of RevOps that don’t “get it”. They don’t feel it’s important to have full visibility into the funnel - and more importantly - they don’t realise how much money is lost every month when you neglect it.

If you want to run an efficient revenue machine in 2024 and beyond - I still believe this is what you need to do.  

A few seasoned founders told me that “maybe you were just too early”. And that might be true. But I also think this is what every failed founder claims. It helps you fall asleep at night and say “not my fault”. But I think - while not untrue - when everyone can say it, then it’s BS. 

Having said that, I do believe that RevOps will continue to grow both in size and impact. And that the bet we had will eventually come true - just not in time for Growblocks. 

So, what’s next for me?

Right now I still focus on making the transition for the team and our customers as easy as possible. But for my next steps:

Mikkel and I will build this Substack and talk about how you can set up your GTM in the most logical and data-driven way. We’ll also continue to share personal experiences that I hope you can learn from.

We will also continue our Podcast “The Revenue Formula”. We’ll keep publishing entertaining episodes of a Revenue MBA directly to your phone every week. 

And since we are now on our own: both the Substack and the Podcast will be available for Sponsorships. We have the ears and eyes of thousands of senior GTM professionals - ping me if this is interesting.

For me personally, I will take some time to think about my next move. I think it’s entirely possible that I will start a new company again. I also had some pretty cool opportunities inbound to go back into a revenue leadership role.

But for now, I will focus on helping CROs and CEOs get to GTM Fit, Series A, and 50m ARR.

I already had a few calls like that and people asked me why I am not charging any money and if this could become an ongoing engagement.

And… don’t forget to hit subscribe.