Product-Market Fit Insights

One thing I wish I'd had as a first-time founder was a barometer for product-market fit. When we were struggling to get our first couple of customers... I too often felt stuck because it was clear we didn't have that mystical product-market fit feeling. And it wasn't clear to me exactly where to focus to move TOWARDS the mystical PMF feeling. - Wrong niche? - Wrong value prop? - Wrong product? - All of the above? Something else? Which has led me down this many-year path to explore PMF and how it works. In my opinion, the most useful definition for product-market fit is: "The demonstrated ability to continuously replicate one 'hell yes' customer case study." This takes the mysticism and random metrics out of it - and focuses us. One customer case study. Hell yes. Repeat. Then, the most useful way to think about PMF is as a spectrum, not a checkbox. Hence - the five levels of PMF: 1. Don't have a customer case study worth replicating 2. Have a case study, but can't consistently replicate it 3. Can replicate a customer case study, but it's not a "hell yes" every time 4. Can replicate a customer case study, just need a growth lever 5. "Hell yes" case study + growth lever, holding on for dear life How do we find PMF then? We focus on figuring out our one "hell yes" customer case study and replicating it. We do this by obsessing over having a high volume of customer interactions to figure this out, and debug our case study when it isn't a hell yes. A relatively straightforward process, but it sure ain't easy.

Churn isn't a Customer Success problem. It’s a *business* problem. And it might be why you miss the 2026 plan. Just look at the 3-year ARR impact of different growth initiatives^ for a typical $10M ARR SaaS co: - Increase prices by 50% for existing customers: +$1.7M ARR 🙂 - Increase prices by 50% for *new* customers: +$5.4M ARR 😃 - Increase acquisition by 50%: +$5.4M ARR 😃 - Increase prices by 50% for both: +$7.1M ARR 😁 - Reduce churn by 50%: +$8.9M ARR 🤯 Of course, CS teams are on the front lines working with customers. But there's only so much they can do & they're busy creating value in a bunch of other ways: CSAT & referrals, identifying expansion opps, customer insights. What *can* prevent churn: 1️⃣ Sell to the right customer. I've seen products where annualized retention can range from 50% to 90%+ across different types of customers. Selling to the right ICP who values your product is often the top change that moves the needle. 2️⃣ Stop overselling on the 1st deal. It's usually better to start smaller, prove value quickly, and then unlock growth opportunities in the future. This also leads to faster sales cycles. 3️⃣ Market to your customers. Marketing isn't only for prospects. Your existing customers should hear about the latest features, learn best practices and get connected to a peer community. 4️⃣ Nail onboarding. A surprising % of folks who churn never really effectively launched in the first place. (This is especially true for PLG/self-serve). 5️⃣ Set up integrations. When your product is embedded in the customer's workflow & other systems, it's hard to rip-and-replace. Three reasons why: (a) connected data, (b) easier user adoption, (c) use case expansion. 6️⃣ Solve more problems. By broadening use cases for your product, you get more champions who'll go to bat for you at renewal (which is especially important if your original buyer leaves). 7️⃣ Give yourself more time. Moving from monthly to annual (or multi-year) plans can be controversial. But IMO you're usually better off because you have more time to impress the customer & the customer is more motivated to implement the product. --- Every team has a role to play in preventing churn. ^Data comes from the ChartMogul Scenarios feature and is based on a median $10M ARR SaaS company. Check out the full growth levers report here: https://lnkd.in/entFSeJ8 #customersuccess #churn #startup

When I was 14, I sold a product that wasn't real. On purpose. I wanted to start a mail-order business selling fly-tying materials to fishermen. But I had no idea if anyone would actually buy. So I placed an £8 advert in Trout & Salmon magazine: "Send for my catalogue." The problem was, I hadn't printed the catalogue yet. I hadn't even bought any stock. When 25 people responded, I told them we had "sold out" and they were out of print. Then I scrambled to put one together. That £8 test told me everything I needed to know. There was demand and the business was viable. I went on to turn over £1,500 in the first year, with £356 profit. That felt good for a teenager with a £100 loan from his mum. Here's what I learned about validation: ➡️ Test before you invest The biggest mistake founders make is building before they validate.  They spend months (sometimes years) perfecting a product nobody wants. ➡️ Make your test affordable £8 bought me the answer to a £10,000 question.  You don't need venture capital to test an idea.  You need creativity and nerve. ➡️ Make your test fast I had my answer in a week. That's how I discovered that speed matters.  The longer you wait to test, the more attached you become to an idea that might not work. ➡️ Let the market decide I didn't ask friends what they thought.  I didn't run focus groups.  I put real money on the line and saw the results. ➡️ Copy what works, then improve it I didn't invent fly-tying materials.  I just found a better way to sell them.  Take what's already working and find a way to execute it better. It's about getting it 80% right, then letting your customers show you the rest. The software industry worked this out years ago.  They release version 1.0 knowing it's not perfect. Then they improve based on real feedback. You can do the same, whatever your business is. A simple test you can run this week: Before you invest a large amount of money, run the smallest possible test that proves demand. - A classified advert like I did. - 10 conversations with potential customers. - A prototype made from cardboard and duct tape. Whatever proves people will actually pay for what you're planning to build. Because the market will always tell you the truth if you're willing to ask. If you're currently testing a business idea,  I'd like to hear how you're validating demand before you build. 

The Product Market Fit Framework by Sequoia 👇 3 Archetypes of Product-Market Fit: 1. Hair on Fire 🔥 You solve a problem that’s a clear, urgent need for customers. The demand is obvious. Because of this, your category is likely crowded with competitors vying for market share. Your customers are actively wrestling with the problem, and likely comparing existing products to solve it. To succeed in such a dynamic, you must rise above the noise. The only way to do so is by delivering the best-in-class solution. And best-in-class products stand out because they are different, not merely better. You can’t just be faster or cheaper—you need a truly differentiated customer experience to have a durable advantage. 2. Hard Fact 💎 You take a pain point universally accepted as a hard fact of life, and see that it’s merely a hard problem that your product solves for the customer. Your customers have resigned themselves to just living with the problem. They’re not urgently engaged with trying to solve it. The status quo is just how it is, and change doesn’t seem like an option. You upend how things are done with an unexpected approach: Facts can’t be changed—but problems can be solved. The challenge to overcome is force of habit. Customers will have to change their current behaviors, and inertia is powerful. You need an approach that’s novel enough, for a problem that matters enough, to be worth making a change. 3. Future Vision 🎯 You enable a new reality through visionary innovation. It sounds like science fiction to customers, either because the concept is familiar but sounds impossible (like abundant cheap energy from nuclear fusion) or because no one ever imagined it (like the iPhone). Customers are not only not trying to solve the problem, they are either oblivious to it or predisposed to think it’s a pipe dream. Either way, the obstacle is disbelief: Customers must believe that your product represents a whole new paradigm—often with its own ecosystem. (The iPhone wasn’t just a device; its App Store was a new way of interfacing with the internet. Tesla isn’t just a car; it’s a network of cameras and self-driving software that’s a new driving experience.) Customers must find the paradigm and its possibilities irresistible. As discussed below, this path is often long, and finding the right route with the right commercial opportunities along the way is usually critical.

The biggest mistake I made building my first startup was falling in love with my own idea. It cost me $10K and 1.5 years. Here's how to avoid building something nobody wants to pay for 👇 My co-founder and I spent 1.5 years and $15K of our own money building a job review platform for minorities. Our goal was to create a Glassdoor for us. At the time, I thought that this was something that just had to exist. If we build it, they'll come. Wrong. After 1.5 years, we had to face reality: - 1 paying customer - $400 MRR - 1500 job-seekers but 0 willing to pay Neither businesses nor job-seekers would PAY for our platform. They appreciated it, but no one would open their checkbook. Then something unexpected happened. A friend reached out asking if we could help with their ERGs. They had $35K to spend - almost 10x more than we'd ever made working on the job review platform. We pivoted, and within a month of launching as Chezie, we had a 5-figure contract. If I were to start a new company, here's how I'd approach building product: 1. Start with customer pain Talk to 20+ potential customers. My favorite questions to ask: • How are you solving that problem today? • Have you looked for a better solution recently? 2. Validate willingness to pay by SELLING (Most important) Here's what I learned after 300+ customer calls: "I love this idea" = worthless "When can I buy?" = close, but we can do better "Here's my credit card" = validation You have to ask people to pay for your solution. That’s the only validation that matters. Best case? They buy on the spot. Worst case? They end the call and block you. Either way, you get feedback that helps you understand if you're on the right path. You have to ask people to pay for it early. Words are nice, but a Stripe payment is much better. (Check out Rob Snyder's content for how to find demand by selling) --- Don't make the same mistake I did. Focus on learning about your customers first. Building the product becomes way easier when you know exactly what pain you're solving and how much people will pay to fix it. How do you think about building product? P.S. - Want the exact framework I use to validate ideas by selling? I wrote about it in my Equity Shift newsletter. Click "Visit my store" at the top of this post to subscribe for free and read the full guide 🤝🏾

Product-market fit is useless in healthcare. You need permission-power fit first. Startups spend months (and sometimes years) chasing product-market fit. But in healthcare, the "market" can't say yes. Your end user might love it. The patients might need it. The outcomes might be bulletproof. But if the person with the permission and the person with the power are not the same - or don't align - well you know... Here's what that looks like in practice: The clinical lead wants it, but procurement doesn't IT signs off, but the budget sits with a different silo Execs love the pitch, but no one will actually use it HCP agree to a pilot but know deep down they won't test it Product-market fit assumes one buyer. Healthcare has five - and none of them agree. What you really need is permission-power fit: Can you identify where authority and influence intersect in this system? Here's the real decision flow I've seen work: Find someone who feels the pain daily. Not an "innovation lead" - a person whose KPIs suffer without your product. Map their political capital. Are they respected? Can they escalate? Will they defend the spend? Secure narrative buy-in. Your case study isn't about metrics. It's about giving your champion a win. Healthcare isn't one market (so how on earth can we achieve PMF). It's a web of incentives, fears, and fiefdoms. Fit the politics before you fit the product.

I recently spoke with an early-stage AI app founder who was desperate to hire sales reps because he dreaded founder-led sales. This is one of the most common failure modes I see with technical founders—and it significantly impedes the path to product-market fit. Here's how to think about the right order of operations in early sales motions: Phase 1: Prototype & Validation In the earliest stage, the feedback loop between customer conversations and product roadmap must be extraordinarily tight—making founder-led sales absolutely non-negotiable. This phase is critical because you're identifying your true ideal customer profile (ICP) and learning how to effectively communicate your product story and address common objections. As you accumulate hundreds of demo repetitions (while refining your product based on feedback), you gradually assemble a winning process. Phase 2: Founder-led Sales Scale-Up Your mission here is to create the sales playbook that will guide future reps. You need sufficient pattern recognition to understand which messages resonate with which personas. I recall meeting Desmond Lim, CEO of Workstream, several years ago (not an Emergence portfolio company, but I deeply admire what they've built). He showed me the remarkable 60-page playbook he crafted documenting their entire sales process—before hiring a single AE. Every nuance. Every objection. Everything a new rep would need to succeed. While perhaps extreme, this perfectly illustrates the principle: scaling go-to-market requires mastering your ideal sales motion before delegating it. Phase 3: Hiring Initial Sales Reps Most founders default to sequential hiring—start with one rep, evaluate results, then proceed. However, we recommend hiring 2-3 sales reps with diverse backgrounds simultaneously, enabling you to effectively A/B test different profiles. Regardless of approach, ensure these early hires are "renaissance reps" with rapid iteration capabilities rather than purely "coin-operated" sellers. Mark Leslie has a great foundational article on the Sales Learning Curve provides excellent guidance. I'll link it below. So embrace the early sales work, even when it feels uncomfortable. It's fundamental to building a foundation for lasting success.

Every founder who has truly reached product-market fit can tell you the moment it happened. It is when customers start pulling the product out of your hands faster than you can build it. In the early days of PropertyGuru, we experimented constantly. New features almost weekly: photos, floorplans, pricing trends, maps, mobile apps before smartphones were mainstream. Eventually we hit PMF. We were helping consumers find their dream homes while enabling agents to sell faster. Within three years we had a profitable, fast-growing Singapore business. But copying and pasting that PMF into other Southeast Asian markets did not work. We had to find it all over again. My cofounder and I were in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand almost every week. Sitting with consumers, agents, developers, regulators, competitors, and our own staff. Asking naïve questions, listening, testing ideas, trying new approaches. Some insights came from unexpected places. We paid sales teams to collect better listing content. We partnered with media companies to test propositions. We built tools nobody asked for because we could see the gap between what people needed and what existed. None of that came from a strategy slide. It came from being in the market every week until feedback shifted from “interesting” to “when can I have it?” At Wavemaker Impact, we went back to first principles. We interviewed more than 50 startups, investors, and exited founders across Southeast Asia. 3 things stood out ⬇️ First, only founders can find PMF. It cannot be delegated. The founders who got there fastest spent the most time with customers and ran the most experiments. Second, PMF is not a feeling. It is predictable, repeatable revenue with positive unit economics from a clearly defined customer segment large enough to sustain a business. Third, speed of experimentation matters more than strategy quality. Most experiments fail. The ones that work reveal insights that accelerate the path to PMF. For climate founders, the temptation is to lead with the mission. But customers do not buy missions. They buy solutions to painful, usually economic, problems. If you cannot describe the pain in the customer’s language and prove you can solve it repeatedly, profitably, and at scale, PMF is still ahead of you. The questions we now ask our climate tech founders are simple: ❓ Can you define what PMF looks like for your company? ❓Is your target customer precise and large enough? ❓Are you spending enough time with customers? ❓What experiments are you running this week? PMF is not mysterious. But it is incredibly hard. It comes from obsessive curiosity, customer proximity, intellectual honesty, and relentless experimentation until the numbers prove it. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘺𝘎𝘶𝘳𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘠𝘚𝘌 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 40+ 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴.

I always hated the common definitions of “Product Market Fit”. They read more like fortune cookies than actual definitions. Most of them are some rephrasing of: “Build something people want.” We think founders need something more actionable... ...so we created our own definition and model. (See image) ——— Here’s our definition: 👉 “PMF is when you can repeatably find, sell, serve, and retain customers on the same use case.” And here’s a breakdown of our model introducing the 2 types of fit and the 4 supporting pillars. Go-to-Market Fit 🟧 Find → Can you consistently get in front of your ideal customers? This pillar boils down to selecting and executing the right channels and tactics to reach and engage prospects. This can take different shapes depending on your business model. For PLG companies, this means getting people to your homepage. For Sales-Led companies, this means getting a meeting. 🟩 Sell → Can you consistently close deals with your ICP? This pillar is about selecting and executing the right sales model along with developing the right offer. Again, closing deals can mean different things for different business models. For PLG, this means getting a site visitor to sign up. For Sales-Led, this means getting a prospect to sign a contract. Problem-Solution Fit 🟦 Serve → Can you consistently get customers to value? This pillar is about selecting and executing the right delivery model to get your customers off and running with your product. This can be self serve, white glove services, using partners, or some combination of these. 🟪 Retain → Can you get customers to stick around? This pillar is about selecting and executing the right support model for growing your customers success with your product. *This function can also act as input for course correcting other pillars to reach product market fit — It’s here where you really start to see whether the other pillars are actually working. ——— Founders often think they have found PMF when to get a few customers using their product... ...but when we pressure test their business with this framework, we often find only partial progress towards these 4 pillars of fit. We recommend founders give this model a try with their own startup. And be honest about your progress — specifically on how repeatable your operations are across these pillars. #productmarketfit #startups #saas

In retail, many chase the next big thing—a new style, a new way to reach consumers—triggering a frantic race to adopt. But most trends fade as fast as they appear. The real game-changers are curated habits that prove they can stand the test of time. I’ve championed social commerce as the future of retail for over a decade. In hindsight, that barely scratches the surface. It’s now a deeply ingrained consumer behavior. The imperative isn’t just to adopt it, but to evolve with it—constantly and intentionally. At HSN, social commerce was core to our strategy. We pioneered the blend of shopping and entertainment. That’s the essence: finding the sweet spot where entertainment, connection, and commerce converge. Soon after, platforms like Twitch began enabling users to both game and shop in real time, blending entertainment with commerce. Fanatics has successfully leaned into this model as well, immersing fans in live experiences while showcasing gear in action, often worn by their favorite athletes and community, turning fandom into a powerful trust signal. More recently, TikTok Shop collapsed the purchase funnel into a single scroll. It's no longer discover, then buy. Now, it’s see it, want it, buy it—seamlessly, in-platform. So, as we look ahead, how do I see this "social commerce habit" evolving? Here's what I expect: 🔹 Creator Integration is Non-Negotiable. For Gen Z, in particular, TikTok Shop has become a primary discovery engine. They trust their favorite creators to genuinely try products and offer honest feedback. The more brands lean into authentic partnerships with creators, the more trust they build in this integrated shopping experience. It’s about relationship-driven commerce. 🔹 Embrace a Zero-Click World. Speed and simplicity are paramount. Consumers need to be able to see, buy, and receive as fast as humanly possible. This means minimal clicks, minimal friction, and no moments for reconsideration. It's about instant gratification and removing all barriers between desire and ownership. 🔹 Elevate Live Shopping. This is a powerful return to the personal connection and real-time interaction that defined the best of traditional retail. Shoppable videos and live sessions transform social media into a personalized shopping aisle. Imagine experts demonstrating products, showing how they fit or can be styled, all in real-time, tailored to your interests. It brings humanity back to digital retail. 🔹 Unlock the Power of Virtual Try-Ons. A longstanding hurdle in e-commerce is "try before you buy." AI-enabled virtual try-on features solves that, making online shopping more immersive and convenient. This translates directly into higher conversion rates, deeper engagement, and customers spending more valuable time interacting with your brand digitally. It’s time to stop treating social commerce like a trend. This is commerce, full stop. It’s a fundamental consumer behavior that belongs at the center of every modern retail strategy.