Apollo.io CPO on Why What Got You to $40M Won’t Get You to $200M

What really breaks when a company scales and why do proven playbooks suddenly stop working? In this podcast hosted by Boston New Technology CPO Shweta Agrawal, Apollo.io CPO Bela Stepanova speaks on what it takes to scale from $40M to $200M ARR and beyond. Drawing from her experience scaling multiple high-growth companies, Bella unpacks the mindset shifts, product strategy changes, and organizational decisions required to navigate hypergrowth without losing focus, quality, or customer trust.

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Show Notes

1. Scaling from $40M to $200M ARR requires fundamentally different product, org, and decision-making models.
2. What gets a company to early success often becomes the biggest blocker at the next growth stage.
3. Hypergrowth exposes cracks in customer support, retention, operations, and internal communication.
4. Product leaders must embrace continuous change rather than optimize for stability.
5. Silos are one of the most damaging forces at scale and actively erode product quality and culture.
6. Incremental feature delivery rarely moves the business needle during high-growth phases.
7. Product strategy must balance short-term revenue impact with long-term platform bets.
8. Customer communities turn buyers into long-term partners and advocates.
9. Treating customers as humans, especially when things break, builds trust and loyalty.
10. Product roadmaps fail when teams lose clarity on why they are building something.
11. ROI clarity is essential to avoid bloated roadmaps and unfocused investment.
12. Horizon-based planning helps teams balance core optimization, new bets, and future disruption.
13. Scaling successfully requires slowing down intentionally to improve quality and alignment.
14. Product leaders must increasingly operate as business leaders, not just roadmap owners.
15. Metrics evolve by stage, from value creation to retention, repeatability, and expansion.
16. Decision-making must be distributed with clear ownership and visibility, not centralized by default.
17. Strong CPO–CEO alignment is critical during periods of rapid change.
18. Technical foundations like design systems, data instrumentation, and performance are non-negotiable at scale.
19. AI accelerates velocity but raises the importance of architecture, coherence, and intentionality.
20. The best product leaders at scale act as change drivers who align teams, strategy, customers, and business outcomes.