Jason M. Lemkin discusses a key revenue milestone for startups (around $20–30M ARR), citing Todd McKinnon of Okta who felt a company was "unkillable" once it reached $30M. Lemkin frames this milestone as a turning point where founders can candidly discuss past mistakes and transition from early-stage identity to scalable company leadership.
And 20, 30 million is pretty far from a founder perspective. Right. I used to think 20 to 30 million was a lot of revenue until I remember talking to Todd McKinnon, who's CEO of Okta, and he said it wasn't until 30 million that he thought they couldn't be killed, that they weren't an early stage startup anymore. And I used to think that was later in the journey. Right. And it was an insight. And it's also about the same time where you can start being honest and say, here's what I screwed up building the 20 VC fund. Here's what I screwed up earlier in my career. Here's what I screwed up at Nvidia versus I'm the world's best compliance software HR manager company in the world. No one wants to hear that. Listen, I agree with you on Janssen.
