Introduction

So you’ve secured your first few customers as a new startup. While you should continue to seize that momentum, you can’t always rely on the same strategies that secured that first client to continue to earn you a larger customer base.

That’s where tinkering and tailoring your GTM strategy for sustainable growth comes into play.

Moving from 10 to 100 customers (and more!) requires going through your operation processes, marketing strategies, sales playbook, and even company culture with a fine-tooth comb. It’s time to repeat what works, iterate areas that need improvement, and ditch weak points in order to scale successfully.

Today, we’ll follow along with a company that moved from 10 to 100 customers and more by mastering GTM: V-Key. V-Key is a Singapore-based digital security software that protects millions of users’ data globally.

Raymond Lee, COO at V-Key, sat down with HubSpot for Startups to share more details on how V-Key transitioned its go-to-market strategy as it scaled from 1 to 10 to 100 users and beyond.

The Interview

HSFS: At what point did you realize that your GTM approach needed to evolve? What is one key change you made to drive sustainable growth?

Raymond Lee (RL): We realized that our GTM approach needed to evolve when we hit a plateau in customer acquisition—so we shifted from a one-size-fits-all strategy to a more segmented, data-driven approach that tailored messaging to specific customer profiles.

HSFS: As your company scaled from 10 to 100, how did your approach to customer acquisition and retention evolve, and what were the key metrics you focused on?

RL: Our approach to customer acquisition evolved from establishing credibility to driving industry-wide adoption. Early on, we focused on building trust through strategic collaborations and showcasing the security and scalability of our patented Virtual Secure Element, V-OS. As we expanded, we refined our go-to-market strategy to target key sectors like financial services, payment gateways, and government, ensuring our solutions addressed industry-specific challenges.

Customer retention became a priority as we focused on long-term value through continuous innovation, compliance, and seamless integration. Key metrics included customer adoption rates, contract renewals, integration efficiency, and customer satisfaction. By ensuring our technology remained easy to implement and delivered measurable security benefits, we strengthened relationships and sustained growth in an evolving digital landscape.

HSFS: What role did customer feedback play in shaping your GTM strategy as you expanded, and how did you incorporate this into product and marketing decisions?

RL: Customer feedback played a strategic role in shaping our go-to-market (GTM) approach as we expanded. Insights from enterprise customers helped us refine our value proposition, ensuring our solutions addressed business-critical priorities such as security, operational resilience, and regulatory compliance. As we scaled, direct input from stakeholders guided how we positioned our technology to tackle broader mobile security challenges—including authentication, app protection, and safeguarding sensitive digital interactions. This feedback-driven approach enabled us to sharpen our messaging, highlight key differentiators, and align our GTM strategy with evolving enterprise security requirements.

On the product side, customer feedback influenced enhancements that strengthened security architecture, improved integration efficiency, and optimized performance for large-scale deployments. In marketing, we leveraged industry use cases to demonstrate real-world applications such as securing digital banking authentication, preventing unauthorized access, and ensuring regulatory compliance. By maintaining a continuous feedback loop with our customers, we ensured our solutions remained relevant, scalable, and capable of addressing the growing complexities of mobile security.

HSFS: When scaling a startup, culture often shifts. How did you ensure that your GTM strategy stayed aligned with the company’s core values and mission as you grew?

RL: As V-Key scaled, we ensured that our go-to-market (GTM) strategy remained aligned with our core values and mission by maintaining a strong focus on security innovation, customer trust, and industry impact. From the beginning, our mission has been to provide advanced mobile security solutions that empower businesses without compromising user experience. As we expanded, we reinforced this by continuously refining our messaging and solutions to address evolving security challenges while staying true to our commitment to seamless integration, regulatory compliance, and enterprise-grade protection.

Internally, we fostered alignment by embedding our core values into every aspect of our GTM approach—from product development to customer engagement. We maintained close collaboration between sales, marketing, and engineering teams to ensure that our solutions not only met market demand but also upheld the security-first principles that define V-Key. By staying responsive to industry needs while remaining rooted in our core mission, we were able to scale without losing sight of what differentiates us in the mobile security space.

HSFS: What technology or tools were essential in supporting your GTM strategy during this growth phase, and how did they help you maintain efficiency and agility?

RL: During our growth phase, a combination of technology and tools played a critical role in supporting our GTM strategy, ensuring both efficiency and agility. CRM platforms helped streamline lead management and engagement, allowing us to track interactions and tailor our outreach for enterprise clients. Marketing tools enabled us to scale communication while maintaining relevance, ensuring that our messaging resonated with key industries. Data analytics provided valuable insights into customer behavior and market trends, allowing us to refine our approach and optimize decision-making.

By leveraging the right mix of technology, we were able to scale efficiently while maintaining a customer-centric approach in our GTM execution.

HSFS: How do you ensure alignment across sales, marketing, and product teams as your company scales, especially when you move from 10 to 100 customers?

RL: We established clear communication channels and structured feedback loops to keep teams informed about customer needs and market trends. Regular cross-functional meetings allowed sales to share frontline insights, marketing to refine messaging based on real-world challenges, and product teams to prioritize features that directly addressed enterprise security requirements. This alignment ensured that our solutions remained relevant and effectively positioned for key industries.

We also leveraged a shared GTM approach to maintain consistency across teams. Regular business reviews and cross-functional check-ins enabled us to track customer engagement, identify pain points, and adjust strategies accordingly. By fostering collaboration and ensuring that each function had visibility into the broader GTM strategy, we were able to scale efficiently while staying true to our core mission of delivering seamless, secure mobile security solutions.

HSFS: What was the biggest challenge you faced when scaling your GTM strategy from a small team to a larger organization? And how do you overcome the challenge? 

RL: One of the biggest challenges we faced when scaling our go-to-market (GTM) strategy was balancing agility with structured processes. As a smaller team, we could move quickly and adapt to customer needs in real time. However, as we expanded, maintaining this level of responsiveness while ensuring consistency across sales, marketing, and product development became more difficult. Without a clear framework, there was a risk of fragmented messaging and inefficiencies in execution.

To address this, we implemented clear GTM processes that allowed for both flexibility and scalability. We standardized key workflows, refined our customer segmentation approach, and ensured that teams had access to the right resources to execute efficiently. At the same time, we preserved agility by encouraging open communication, fostering a culture of collaboration, and continuously refining our strategy based on shifting customer and industry needs. This balance allowed us to scale effectively without losing the ability to adapt to changing market dynamics.

Conclusion

Building a GTM strategy for securing the first client, the first 10 clients, the first 100, and so on all requires some flexibility. However, the methods you use in the early stages of your startup aren’t always going to continue to drive growth down the line.

As we can see with V-Key, it’s important to dial into the data to get a better understanding of what works—and what needs improvement. You may need to shift your target audience by niching down, but you also want to keep your existing customers in mind as you scale.

From there, you can fine-tune your processes, tap into helpful technology to give both new and existing customers a great experience, and craft repeatable and automated processes to continue growing in a sustainable way.

As Lee puts it, “Focus on building a scalable, repeatable process—optimize your customer journey, invest in automation, and ensure your team can scale without compromising on quality or customer experience.”