The Real Product Market Fit by Michael Seibel

Table of Contents

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Key Takeaways:

Product-market fit is often misunderstood by founders, leading to premature scaling and resource allocation.
Mark Andreesen's definition of product-market fit emphasizes explosive usage, growing revenue, and the need for additional resources to meet demand.
Many founders focus on company building activities like hiring and culture before truly understanding and solving the problem their product addresses.
Confusion arises from misusing the term "product-market fit," which should signify that customers are actively using the product, not just that the product has been built.
Profitability and sustainable growth are essential indicators of true product-market fit, not just rapid user acquisition.
Achieving product-market fit is a challenging and iterative process, often requiring persistence and a willingness to adapt.

Key Quotes:

"I often talk to founders who believe they've found product market fit when they haven't... before they've actually discovered what needs to be built."
"It's like saying that green, blue, yellow, we could call all of those orange... it's a defined term."
"Product-market fit is what happens after you've built the things that customers want... because they're using it in an explosive and destructive way."
"The awful reality is... the vast majority of founders... never find product-market fit... more acquisitions than you might know are of companies that did not find product-market fit."
"You can't pretend your way out of product-market failure... you have to be comfortable failing at it for a while."
"I get this question a lot should I optimise for growth, should I optimise for retention, or should I optimise for profitability. My answer is always the same yes."
"I hear this term product market fit so often and I have to tell you 98% of the time it's used incorrectly, people act like its an undefined/flexibly defined term and it is not."
"The most common way its mistaken (its weird cause it sounds so close), I built a thing that customers want."
"Product market fit is the thing that happens after you build product market fit, the only way you know you have built something customers want is they are using it in an explosive & destructive way."
"Product market fit means is the growth almost killing you and is it profitable, people always want to forget the 2nd part."