This 10-Second Test Exposes Underperformers (+ Why Most Founders Never Use It) — Until Growth Stalls, They Hit the $10M Wall, & See Hidden B-Players Dragging Down Culture, Morale, & Revenue.

Most CEOs Think Their Biggest Risk Is Running Out of Cash. They’re Wrong. The Real Killer Is the Wrong Leader in the Wrong Seat—Silently Bleeding Culture, Morale, and Revenue Until It’s Too Late.

Why Companies Struggle to Break Through the $10M Wall

Most CEOs never think to ask the one question that instantly reveals whether an employee is moving the business forward—or just taking up space.

It’s simple. It’s uncomfortable. And it’s probably a question your highest-paid leaders would fail to answer.

And that’s the scary part.

When we work with early and growth-stage founders, we often see the same pattern repeat:

• Leaders confuse “working hard” with delivering results.

• Promotions are handed out for effort, not outcomes.

• CEOs can’t always tell you which leaders are actually moving the needle.

That’s why so many startups stall at the $10M wall. Early momentum gives way to flat growth when the wrong people are in the wrong seats—or when someone who thrived at $1–3M becomes a mismatch for a $10–20M business.

The brutal truth: most startups don’t measure what matters. They track vanity metrics, mistake busyness for progress, and hope culture alone will carry the weight of growth.

It won’t.

What We Advise Our Clients To Measure

Every leader—and every one of their direct reports—should have 3–5 crystal-clear KPIs tied directly to outcomes. No ambiguity. No interpretation.

The scoreboard tells the truth even when feelings lie.

Here’s the framework we recommend (with examples across critical functions founders often overlook):

1. Revenue Impact KPI

How much money does this person generate or save?

• Sales: deals closed, revenue per rep, average deal size

• Marketing: qualified pipeline created, CAC, LTV/CAC ratio

• Finance: cash runway extended, budget variance, capital efficiency (burn multiple)

• Product: ARR growth tied to new feature adoption, retention lift from roadmap delivery

2. Quality KPI

How well do they do the work?

• Customer Success: NRR, NPS/CSAT, churn rate

• Engineering: bug rates, uptime %, test coverage

• Ops: error reduction, process accuracy, compliance metrics

3. Speed KPI

How fast do they deliver?

• Engineering: sprint velocity, release frequency

• Customer Support: average first-response time, resolution time

• Finance: monthly close speed, forecast accuracy

4. Growth KPI

How are they improving themselves and the org?

• Product: % of roadmap informed by customer/market feedback

• HR/People: % of managers trained, internal promotions vs external hires

• Any leader: new skills acquired, certifications earned, process innovations introduced

5. Team Impact KPI

How do they affect others?

• All functions: peer feedback scores, team engagement scores

• Sales Leaders: rep productivity with/without their involvement

• Engineering Managers: turnover rate of engineers under their leadership
  

How It Works in Practice

We encourage clients to review these KPIs weekly with their leaders—and expect those leaders to cascade the same rigor down to every member of their teams.

Some companies even make scoreboards visible across the org—so everyone knows who’s on track and who’s not.

• When someone crushes their KPIs, celebrate them publicly.

• When someone misses consistently, address it directly.

• When someone fails to improve after clear support, make a change.

This isn’t cruel. It’s honest.

Because here’s the truth:

• Winners love scoreboards.

• Losers fear them.
  

The Takeaway for Founders

Scaling is brutal. If you can’t explain—in 10 seconds—how each member of your executive team is moving the needle, you’re flying blind.

And if your leaders can’t do the same for their direct reports (all the way down to your most junior ICs), then you’ve uncovered your first growth ceiling.

That’s not a KPI problem. That’s a leadership problem.

When It’s Time to Act

Once you identify an underperformer, that’s when we step in—confidentially.

We specialize in helping founders surgically remove B-players and replace them with proven A-players who unlock the next stage of growth. Because keeping underperformers isn’t just unfair to your company—it’s unfair to your board, your market, and most of all, your A-players.

And here’s the hard truth:
Almost every executive team has one or two “hiders.” They’re smart enough to stay busy, political enough to survive reviews, and costly enough to drag everyone else down.

When you extract and replace them?
The surge in culture, morale, and revenue is immediate.

That’s the leverage point most founders miss.
And it’s one of the most important conversations we have with our clients.