Overview

Are You Ready to Scale Sales? How Fast? These two questions are mission critical to the success of any startup, product launch, or market expansion. Yet, too often we rely on gut feel—or let irrelevant signals like a recent fundraise or comparisons to past unicorns—to drive our decisions. The Science of Scaling offers a rigorous framework for founders, executives, and investors to calculate the answers using their company’s actual performance data—not wishful thinking. Drawing on insights from hundreds of startups over the past 25 years, Mark Roberge—Founding CRO at HubSpot, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, and Co-Founder of Stage 2 Capital—reveals the five most common reasons revenue acceleration efforts fail: Premature focus on top-line revenue over consistent customer value creation Inadequate, non-data-driven definitions of product-market fit Misunderstanding the GTM capabilities needed before hiring salespeople Front-loading sales hires instead of pacing hiring based on readiness Confusing temporary spikes with lasting competitive advantage Whether you're a founder starting to scale, an investor guiding your portfolio, or a GM launching a new product, The Science of Scaling is your operating manual. Don’t guess. Don’t gamble. Scale scientifically.

Full Product Details

Author:   Mark Roberge
Publisher:   John Wiley & Sons Inc
Imprint:   John Wiley & Sons Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 16.30cm , Height: 3.30cm , Length: 23.10cm
Weight:   0.499kg
ISBN:  

9781394319428

ISBN 10:   1394319428
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   20 January 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi Part I The Science of Scaling Framework: Calculating Whether We Are Ready to Scale and How Fast 1 Phase 1 Product-Market Fit 3 Chapter 1 Is Product-Market Fit … a Feeling? 5 Chapter 2 Defining the Leading Indicator of Retention (LIR) 9 Chapter 3 Defining the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) 17 Chapter 4 Instrumenting the LIR Measurement for Scale 21 Phase 2 Go-to-Market Fit 27 Chapter 5 The Product Fits, but Does the Go-to-Market? 29 Phase 3 Growth and Moat 39 Chapter 6 How Fast Should We Scale? 41 Chapter 7 Building the Bottom-Up Scale Model 51 Part II Aligning the Go-to-Market System with Product-Market Fit 59 Chapter 8 Defining the Go-to-Market System 61 Chapter 9 The Optimal Design of the Go-to-Market System Is Contextual 67 Chapter 10 Aligning ICP with the Pursuit of Product-Market Fit: Early Adopters Fostering Rapid Learning 75 Chapter 11 Aligning the Go-to-Market Process with the Pursuit of Product-Market Fit: Founder-Led, Learning-Oriented 81 Chapter 12 Aligning GTM Hires with the Pursuit of Product-Market Fit: Half Product Manager, Half Account Executive 89 Chapter 13 Aligning Demand Generation with the Pursuit of Product-Market Fit: Rely on Personal Network and Referrals 101 Chapter 14 Aligning Pricing with the Pursuit of Product-Market Fit: Price for Commitment, Not Profits 105 Chapter 15 Aligning GTM Compensation with the Pursuit of Product-Market Fit: Equity Instead of Variable Commission 107 Chapter 16 Aligning Go-to-Market System Outputs with the Pursuit of Product-Market Fit: LIR Achievement 109 Part III Aligning the Go-to-Market System with the Pursuit of Go-to-Market Fit 117 Chapter 17 Aligning ICP with the Pursuit of Go-to-Market Fit: Expand from Early Adopter to Early Majority 119 Chapter 18 Aligning the Go-to-Market Process with the Pursuit of Go-to-Market Fit: Codified and Repeatable 123 Chapter 19 Aligning GTM Hires with the Pursuit of Go-to-Market Fit: Process Builder 155 Chapter 20 Aligning Demand Generation with the Pursuit of Go-to- Market Fit: At Least One Scalable, Measurable Medium 161 Chapter 21 Aligning Pricing with the Pursuit of Go-to-Market Fit: The Intersection of Customer ROI, Scalable Unit Economics, and Substitute Options 185 Chapter 22 Aligning Go-to-Market Compensation with the Pursuit of Go-to-Market Fit: Balancing Customer Retention and Profitable Growth 189 Chapter 23 Aligning Go-to-Market System Outputs with the Pursuit of Go-to-Market Fit: Leading Indicator of Unit Economic Achievement 193 PART IV Aligning the Go-to-Market System with the Pursuit of Growth and Moat 203 Chapter 24 Aligning ICP with Growth and Moat: Scale vs. Experiment vs. Ignore Segments 205 Chapter 25 Aligning the GTM Process with Growth and Moat: Reinforced 211 Chapter 26 Aligning GTM Hires with Growth and Moat: Process Executors 223 Chapter 27 Aligning Demand Generation with Growth and Moat: Multiple Mediums Tightly Aligned with Sales 231 Chapter 28 Align Pricing with Growth and Moat: Establish Moat and Raise Price 239 Chapter 29 Align GTM Compensation with Growth and Moat: Add Promotion Paths 245 Chapter 30 Aligning Go-to-Market System Outputs with Growth and Moat: Accelerate While Preserving PMF and GTMF 253 Conclusion 261 Appendix: The Potential Impact of AI on the Science of Scaling Framework 264 Notes 271 Acknowledgments 278 About the Author 279 Index 281Introduction xi Part I The Science of Scaling Framework: Calculating Whether We Are Ready to Scale and How Fast 1 Phase 1 Product-Market Fit 3 Chapter 1 Is Product-Market Fit … a Feeling? 5 Chapter 2 Defining the Leading Indicator of Retention (LIR) 9 Chapter 3 Defining the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) 17 Chapter 4 Instrumenting the LIR Measurement for Scale 21 Phase 2 Go-to-Market Fit 27 Chapter 5 The Product Fits, but Does the Go-to-Market? 29 Phase 3 Growth and Moat 39 Chapter 6 How Fast Should We Scale? 41

Reviews

Author Information

MARK ROBERGE is the Co-Founder of Stage 2 Capital and a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School. He’s the Founding Chief Revenue Officer at HubSpot. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes magazine, Inc. magazine, The Boston Globe, and Harvard Business Review.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions