Happy Monday!

I hope you had an incredible weekend. I’m finally getting back to the keyboard, but the last seven days have been beyond magical and has been by far the most special parts of 2025 for me. The rest of the year has a lot to live up to if its going to top the start of April.

I’m just settling in after an incredible trip to Costa Rica with fifteen Founders Club members. What was supposed to be a “structured” business and mastermind trip ended up just being the most incredible hangout with people who will end up turning into lifelong friends.

Founders Club and the Pilates studio (yes, I’m a co-founder of a heated mat Pilates studio in Miami - if you’re new around here) have both been growing like weeds.

One of our members just sold his company for eight figures. Another landed a retail deal at Costco that they’ve been chasing for years.

Meanwhile, I’ve had convos with so many founders over the past weeks that just feel like they are stuck. Ads are too expensive. Tariffs are ruining their day. It's harder and harder to get traction. I’m very fortunate to be running now three 7-figure businesses simultaneously with CROSSNET included and it reminded me of what no one really talks about:

$1M isn’t the finish line. It’s the trap.

Let me explain.

More Money, More Problems

Hitting your first million in revenue is supposed to feel like you “made it.”

For us at CROSSNET, I remember thinking–

"Damn, we did it.”

We had a real business. Product was flying off the shelves. Retailers were finally taking us seriously. But the high didn’t last long.

Because once you hit that first million you realize nothing actually changed.

It honestly reminded me of when we got Forbes 30U30, thinking my life was magically going to change and in reality nothing did.

You’re still doing everything yourself. You’re still waking up to 100 problems and going to bed with 50 more. You’re still drowning in busywork that has nothing to do with actual growth.

The truth is: most founders never scale past $1M because they never unlearn how they got there. They keep doing the same things that worked when it was just them and a laptop, even though the business has outgrown that version of them.

Busy “Playing CEO”

There’s a big difference between running a business and being a founder. At $1M, you’re still in survival mode. But to grow past that point? You need to make a choice:

Are you building a business? Or building yourself a job?

Because if you’re the only one who can fix a customer complaint, if you’re the only one who can make a marketing decision, if you’re the one manually reviewing every ad, email, or product update,

You’re not the CEO. You’re the bottleneck.

Real CEOs build machines, design systems, and hire people smarter than themselves. They think in terms of structure, scale, and leverage. Most founders never get there –because they’re too busy doing the work to build the team that does the work.

When the “Shift” Finally Happened For Me

For us, the shift happened in phases.

Documenting everything: If something only lived in our heads, it became a process to write down. From customer service replies to inventory management to retail outreach–everything got mapped out.

Hiring owners, not employees: We brought on people who could run things, not just do what we told them. We gave them clear metrics, autonomy, and trust. My old boss at Uber used to say “Be an owner, not a renter.”

Phil if you’re reading this I hated that saying back then, but love it and have stolen it now.

Starting to say “no”: When you’re scaling, the biggest threat isn’t failure–it’s distraction. Every opportunity looks shiny. Every new idea feels like the big one. We started getting ruthless with focus.

Joining the right rooms: I can’t stress this one enough. Being around other founders doing 10x what we were doing changed the game. It shifted what we thought was possible. It gave us the answers we didn’t even know we needed.

Knowing when you are wasting time.

I Should Have Used Doola

If you’re thinking about starting a business or in the early days its actually comical to think about all the time that I wasted on stupid things that I thought were important.

Hours researching how to open an LLC. How to make sure I didn’t go to jail for tax evasion. How to have clean monthly financial books so I know how much money I’m actually making or losing.

In reality, we made a ton of mistakes. Paid for bad advice. Wasted hours on back office stuff that had nothing to do with selling.

If I knew a tool existed back then we wouldn’t have wasted hundreds of hours. Then I found…

Business-in-a-Box for E-Commerce by Doola

🧾 LLC? Done.
📚 Bookkeeping? Done.
📦 Taxes? Handled.

All in one place. One price. Done-for-you.

If you’re looking to launch or level up your business — check this out 👇
Could be the smartest decision you make all year.

Sign Up Now and take 10% off with code DOOLATHEFOUNDERSCLUB10

Want the fast pass? Send their founder, Arjun, an email - he’s a legend and an incredible entrepreneur in his own right - [email protected]

Questions to Ask if You’re Stuck at $1m:

• Are you still the one driving every decision?

• Do you feel like the business falls apart when you take a vacation?

• Are you spending more time in the business than on it?

• Do you still feel like you’re holding the whole thing together with duct tape?
  

If so, it’s time for you to step back from “scaling” and set processes that will actually allow you to level up. Not just the business, but you.

A Word to the Wise

If you’re still in the trenches, still grinding toward that first million–keep going. This is not meant in any way to disparage those that haven’t ascended beyond that figure yet. At the end of the day, that’s all it is: a number.

You’re doing the hard part now, but when you get there, remember:

$1M isn’t the end goal.

It’s the launch pad.

The real freedom comes when you build a business that runs without you. And if you’re ready to make that leap?

The right people, systems, and strategy make all the difference.

Get after it this week.

Till next time,

Chris