👀 How to Identify Early Product-Market Fit 👀
If only I had a dollar every time someone asked this.
CB Insight analyzed 110+ startup failure post-mortems.
The #1 reason why more than one in three startups fail was:
❌💸 Running out of cash.
That means they run out of runway before reaching their product-market fit.
The acquisition is NOT the answer for PMF.
Just because people are signing up for your newsletter or downloading the app, it doesn’t mean you’ve found a product-market fit.
These are two main factors that demonstrate PMF:
1️⃣ Engagement
2️⃣ Retention
The second one is especially important because you and investors want low churn numbers.
The answers on PMF from Marc Andreessen, Elad Gil, Steve Blank, Andy Rachleff, and Michael Seibel attached below will further reinforce this point. 👇
Here are 4 lessons to keep in mind when working on PMF:
▪️ Fall in love with the problem, not the solution
▪️ Relentless grinding can’t open up a dead-end, so pair your gut feelings with logic
▪️ Don’t overcomplicate your MVP — optimize for learning
▪️ Assemble informal customer advisory boards with short feedback loops
What is your best advice to ensure PMF?
Source: First Round Review