Building for efficient growth - Pavilion’s honest growth journey & the real problem behind the short CRO tenure with Sam Jacobs

2026-02-12

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Most growth stories celebrate momentum, but very few actually share the behind-the-scenes of what happens when momentum stalls. In this Making The Grade episode, we’re joined by Sam Jacobs, Founder & CEO of Pavilion - the community built to give in-seat GTM leaders the peers, frameworks, and rooms they need to operate under real pressure. Sam takes us on a journey from the early days of Revenue Collective dinners to Pavilion’s Covid-era surge. But there’s no skipping the hard bits in this episode. Sam shares the painful consequences of grow...

Most growth stories celebrate momentum, but very few actually share the behind-the-scenes of what happens when momentum stalls.

In this Making The Grade episode, we’re joined by Sam Jacobs, Founder & CEO of Pavilion - the community built to give in-seat GTM leaders the peers, frameworks, and rooms they need to operate under real pressure.

Sam takes us on a journey from the early days of Revenue Collective dinners to Pavilion’s Covid-era surge. But there’s no skipping the hard bits in this episode. Sam shares the painful consequences of growing too fast, loosening ICP, and chasing scale for growth’s sake.

This is a rare, unfiltered conversation about what happens when your biggest strength gets diluted, and how you rebuild when churn becomes the signal you can’t ignore.

No matter whether you’re a Founder currently building or a GTM Leader facing the various challenges the market throws at you, there’s endless practical advice in this episode, ready for you to apply straight away.

📚 Episode Chapters

01:15 - Pavilion’s origin story
09:23 - Scaling mistakes & lost focus
19:08 - The short CRO tenure
22:20 - Building P&L Fluency for Revenue Leaders
29:00 - Sustainable GTM Strategies
39:34 - Planning for a successful exit

⛳ Mentioned in today’s episode:

Pavilion: https://www.joinpavilion.com/
Intro to P&L Fluency: https://www.joinpavilion.com/pavilion-university/intro-to-pl-fluency

🎧 Continue listening…

Make sure you listen to What it really takes to win in the US - Honest lessons from Natalie Johnson

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