Tactical Playbook For Going From 0 to $10M ARR in Health Tech
Not for the faint of heart. Numbers and benchmarks below:
Initial GTM (0-$1M ARR):
Time to first paid contract: Target 90 days from MVP
Initial ACV sweet spot: $75K-150K
Sales cycles by buyer:
Value Analysis Committee (VAC): 270-365 days
Department Head: 90-120 days
Individual Physician: 30-45 days
* Choose wisely.
Early Sales Motion ($1M-3M ARR):
SDR:AE ratio = 2:1
SDR metrics:
80-100 touches/day
15% connection rate
20-25 meaningful conversations/week
8-10 qualified opps/month
AE metrics:
Pipeline coverage: 4x quota
Win rate: >25%
Time to first deal: <120 days
Avg deal size: >$100K
Critical ratios at $3M ARR:
LTV:CAC > 5:1
Net Revenue Retention: >120%
Gross margins: >75%
Sales efficiency: >0.8
Contract Implementation Time: <45 days
* If you're missing these, stop scaling.
Customer Success metrics to live by:
CSM:Customer ratio = 1:8-12 (enterprise)
Time to first value: <30 days
Clinical workflow adoption: >80% by day 90
Referenceable accounts: >50%
Net Promoter Score: >60
Expansion revenue: 20-30% of ARR
The hard truth about healthcare sales:
Your first 10 deals will take 2x longer than expected
Technical integration timelines are usually wrong by 60%
You need 3 referenceable logos in same specialty before scaling
Clinical champions churn at 40% annually - build redundancy
Real talk on burn multiple:
Seed to Series A: <2
Series A to B: <1.5
Post Series B: <1
* Higher than this? You're buying, not earning, growth.
What kills healthcare startups:
Support cost per customer > 15% of ARR
CAC payback time > 18 months
Sales cycle > 270 days
Clinical validation cycle > 6 months
Product implementation > 90 days
Hidden metrics that matter:
Physician adoption rate by day 30: >40%
Staff training completion rate: >90%
Integration stability: >99.9%
Clinical workflow disruption: <5%
Time to ROI for customer: <180 days
Most founders track the wrong things. Focus on:
Time from contract to go-live
Clinical workflow adoption rate
Reorder/expansion rate
Logo retention (not just revenue)
Support ticket resolution time
Don't scale until you have:
✓ 3 referenceable accounts
✓ <90 day sales cycle
✓ >80% gross margins
✓ <60 day implementation
✓ >120% net revenue retention
