Road to $1M ARR day 18/60: is this actually real?

entering a new league. my whole identity is based on healthy habits.

Day 18 of the $1M ARR sprint.

Been playing it safe for 18 months. This week i feel everything changed.

For a year and half i stayed in my lane. Didn’t go after companies that raised >$10M. Told myself i wasn’t ready. Couldn’t guarantee we’d overdeliver at that level.

So i waited. Built systems. Perfected processes. Stayed patient.

Last 3 days i sent 4 connection requests to CEOs of top 0.001% startups. Personal notes. Specific value props.

4 out of 4 responded positively.

They want to learn more. And you can be sure your boy won’t let any of them go away without jumping on a call. And the plan to make that happen is already in place.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

It took me 4 fucking years to get here.

4 years of building credibility since my early days as an intern. Of proving the model. Of knowing not hoping this is the way to deliver game changing results at any scale.

The psychology behind waiting was complex. Part imposter syndrome, part strategic patience.

When you’re building an agency, there’s this invisible line between companies that trust unproven vendors and those that don’t.

That line is usually around $10-15M in funding.

Below that founders take risks. They’ll work with hungry teams. Above it, they want case studies from companies their size.

Social proof from their peer group. Results that translate to their scale.

So we built that proof with smaller companies first. 200+ campaigns. Dozens of 10x ROI stories. Systems that could handle enterprise complexity.

The offer we have now is different. We’ve battle tested it with seed stage rockets and Series A grinders. Refined it until every component delivers predictable value.

Now i’m ready for the big leagues.

What’s wild is these doors weren’t even on my radar 6 months ago.

These CEOs responding? They’re running companies i used to screenshot as “someday clients.”

But compound progress is real. Every small client who succeeded became a proof point. Every system we built became infrastructure for bigger deals.

Every lesson learned reduced future risk.

Whatever stage you’re at, i’ve been lower. Way lower. The game rewards patience and discipline. Just gotta stay in it long enough for the compound effect to kick in.

And as much as my face screams speed and velocity i know how to be patient.

(i promise)

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

My whole identity is built on boring habits.

Train every day. Eat clean. Sleep well.

There’s neuroscience behind this. Exercise increases BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor). Creates new neural pathways.

Literally grows your brain’s capacity for complex thinking.

Clean eating stabilizes glucose. Stable glucose means consistent energy. Consistent energy means better decisions. Better decisions compound into better outcomes.

Everything compounds. Personal discipline bleeds into business execution. Your mind gets sharper. Creates connections faster. Sees patterns others miss.

The research on this is clear, CEOs who exercise regularly make 25% more than those who don’t.

Not because exercise makes you rich. Because the discipline required to maintain physical habits transfers to business execution.

What’s funny is once these habits become your identity, you can’t deviate for long.

Even on “vacation” (which i call workations because let’s be real), i need my gym session. My clean meals. My 7 hours of sleep.

And to be frank, when my friends asks “how u do it, must be hard” i reach the point where none of it seems like discipline it’s just who i am.

James Clear calls this identity based habits. You don’t “try to eat healthy.” You become someone who eats healthy.

You don’t “try to exercise.” You become an athlete.

This foundation is what got me here. Not talent. Not luck. Just showing up every single day with the same boring consistency.

i don’t consider myself successful yet. But the trajectory is clear. The systems work. The habits compound.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Next week’s focus is converting those 4 CEO conversations into qualified opportunities. The math on these larger deals changes everything.

One $200K/year client equals ten $20K/year clients. But the operational load is actually lower. One stakeholder instead of ten.

One set of expectations. One relationship to maintain.

Time to see what happens when we actually go after the big deals we’ve been avoiding.

ARR: $622K → Target: $1M | Days remaining: 42

See you tomorrow 👊

O.

PS: i tried a different style of structure for today’s update. hope y’all liked it. i have hundreds of topics like this i can write about for hours. if you enjoyed it please let me know :))

Subscribe to Othmane Khadri

accidentally built a million ARR GTM agency by refusing to spray & pray. now racing to $1M just to prove cold emails gurus wrong.

Subscribe