Lenny RachitskyHost of Lenny's Podcast | Author of Lenny's Newsletter

The mid market does not exist

10 Nov 2025 · 1 min

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Short excerpt from a talk arguing that a distinct "mid-market" segment is a false construct: buyers fall into either small business (SMB) or enterprise categories, which require different GTM approaches and hires. The speaker emphasizes choosing whether to pursue upper-end SMB or lower-end enterprise and aligning hiring and ACV expectations accordingly.

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The mid market doesn't exist because what is a mid market hire? It's either low end enterprise or upper end SMB and if you bleed those two games you're going to lose. They're so distinctly different. A lot of people can get lost because selling to a hundred person organization is a radically different game than selling to a thousand person organization. You have small business which is powered by marketing and then you have enterprise which is typically going to be sales led. When we talk about mid market I usually will say are we talking about the upper end of small business or are we talking about the lower end of enterprise? And most people are usually seeing the lower end of enterprise and I say great know you're playing the enterprise game, know the type of people you need to hire, know the type of ACV they need cause it makes it a lot easier than trying to have this middle ground that catches everything that doesn't distinctly define SMB and enterprise.