Stay ConnectedEvery founder has 1 goal: find product-market fit. We interview the world’s most successful startup founders on the 0 to 1 part of their journeys. We’ve had the founders of Reddit, Gusto, Rappi, Glean, Cohere, Huntress, ID.me and many more.
We go deep with entrepreneurs & VCs to provide detailed examples you can steal. Our goal is to understand product-market fit better than anyone on the planet.
Rated one of the world’s top startup podcasts.
Copyright: © 2024 A Product Market Fit Show | Startups & Founders
Corporate spies stealing Slack messages. Adam Neumann raising another $100M (for WeWork 2.0?). AI startups hitting $34B valuations with zero revenue and ordering Ben & Jerry's ice cream over 15 payments with Klarna on DoorDash.
April was wild, and Jack Kuveke joins the show to unpack the chaos, controversy, and insanity behind the biggest startup headlines.
This is different than our normal episodes— definitely a much lighter twist, to be taken with a grain of salt. Let us know what you think!
Why You Should Listen
Keywords
Adam Neumann, AI startups, Silicon Valley espionage, A16Z, Klarna DoorDash, startup news, corporate spies, consumer debt, tech valuations, VC funding
00:00 Intro
01:45 Neumann’s new $500 M raise and the WeWork déjà‑vu
08:20 Deel‑vs‑Rippling spy saga uncovered
13:00 11x growth scandal and TechCrunch backlash
18:25 Marc Andreessen says only VCs are irreplaceable
20:38 ChatGPT’s $10 M “please & thank‑you” GPU bill
26:10 Safe Super‑Intelligence and the $34 B pre‑revenue club
30:00 Klarna × DoorDash lets you finance ice cream
37:40 How consumer debt became America’s default setting
41:55 Quick survival guide for founders (and a few rants)
Forrest Zeisler spent 6 months hearing “no” from every potential customer he spoke to. One year in, Jobber had just three customers—paying $29/month. Today, Jobber generates over $100M ARR, has raised $180M in VC, and employs nearly 1,000 people.
In this episode, Forrest shares the brutally honest story behind Jobber’s early days: months of rejection, maxing out credit cards, and nearly quitting. You’ll learn why there are rarely any “silver bullets”, how he handled relentless investor skepticism, and how incremental daily improvements—not crazy inflection points—led to exponential growth.
If you’ve ever wondered whether your startup can make it through the grind, this is a must-listen.
Why You Should Listen
• Learn how to persist through brutal rejection—Jobber took 6 months to land their first customer.
• Understand why chasing “silver bullet” features or channels rarely works.
• Find out when it makes sense to keep going despite extremely slow traction.
• Hear why your first investors can shape or destroy your startup journey.
• Discover why “compound growth” beats chasing short-term inflection points.
Keywords
product market fit, startup growth, founder stories, fundraising, bootstrapping, Jobber, vertical SaaS, early stage startups, scaling startups, startup rejection
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:55) From Freelance Devs to Startup Founders
(00:07:23) Six Months of Rejection
(00:15:09) Landing the First Customer and Almost Losing Hope
(00:25:39) Brutal Investor Feedback and the $250K Seed Round
(00:35:13) Early Growth and Near-Death Experiences
(00:44:15) Hitting Customer Milestones and Finding True Product Market Fit
(00:48:41) Crossing $100M ARR and Key Lessons Learned
(00:51:11) When to Quit and When to Persist
He turned a personal travel tracker into an app with 10 million users and $10 million in revenue, with almost no funding. He reveals how ignoring conventional startup advice—like launching early, chasing revenue, or partnering for growth—was key to their viral success.
He realized everything growth was about word-of-mouth. So the key to success was obsessing over a single metric: NPS.
If you’re an early-stage founder deciding where to focus, this is your must-listen episode.
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Why You Should Listen
• From losing 90% of users overnight to over $10M in revenue.
• Why obsessing over Net Promoter Score (NPS) instead of revenue can drive explosive organic growth.
• How to stay hyper-focused on one metric—and avoid distractions.
• The truth about partnerships and why most startups shouldn’t chase them.
• The counterintuitive decision to build for quality first, even if it delays your launch.
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Keywords
product market fit, startup growth, net promoter score, organic growth, consumer apps, app monetization, viral growth, user retention, travel app, early-stage startup
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(00:00:00) Losing 90% of Users Overnight
(00:01:10) Turning a Personal Project Into a Travel App
(00:09:36) Raising $50K and Building Before Launch
(00:24:09) Launch Day and First 2000 Users
(00:30:35) Why Chasing Partnerships Can Hurt Growth
(00:36:40) How Polarsteps Reached $10M Revenue
(00:41:00) Surviving COVID as a Travel Startup
(00:42:20) Finding True Product Market Fit
(00:43:26) The Moment Polarsteps Almost Failed
(00:45:03) One Metric Every Founder Should Track
Jordan Boesch started 7shifts as a teenager helping his dad manage restaurant shifts. Today, his software runs scheduling for 50,000 restaurants. This episode dives into how Jordan bootstrapped early growth, why relentless focus on solving real customer pain mattered more than funding, and how tight partnerships supercharged his expansion.
Jordan also shares hard-won lessons on managing burnout, dealing with near-failure, and creating a company culture that lasts. It’s packed with practical insights every founder needs.
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Why You Should Listen:
• From side project to being used by 1 in 10 restaurant workers in the U.S.
• How to use SEO and partnership strategies that drove early growth
• Why customer complaints are often a good sign.
• What to do when you're about to run out of cash.
• See why defining clear core values early was key to building a resilient team.
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(00:00:00) Building for Passion Not Profit
(00:01:32) Solving Dad’s Restaurant Problems
(00:06:01) Getting the First Real Customer
(00:10:47) Taking the Leap to Full-Time Founder
(00:13:07) Moving to Silicon Valley and Finding Focus
(00:16:51) Growth Hacking with SEO and Partnerships
(00:24:59) How to Actually Make Partnerships Work
(00:27:08) Building a Big Company Outside the Bay Area
(00:30:29) Raising Money and Surviving Near-Failure
(00:35:49) Defining Culture to Scale
Wesley turned a simple AI headshot generator into a $10M ARR, profitable company—in just two years.
He was fired from his job, broke in San Francisco, and, after getting rejected by 30 VCs, down to his last few thousand bucks. But Wesley saw a moment: generative AI was taking off, and no one was tackling AI headshots.
Fast-forward two years, and he’s doing $10M in revenue, profitable, with just 10 employees. He shares every bold tactic—bundling random AI packs, hacking Google rankings, landing affiliates, and manually doing customer support until there was no time left. Wes shares insights that every founder should know, including how he navigated intense competition, handled burnout, and maintained growth without a sales team. You’ll walk away with clear, actionable strategies you can apply immediately.
If you want a raw, practical take on zero-to-10M product-market fit in the AI era, this one’s unmissable.
Why You Should Listen:
• How Wes grew Aragon to $10M ARR—without burning any money.
• The guerrilla marketing tactics Wes used to turn a $30 idea into millions of revenue.
• Why starting early let him outrun lookalike competitors.
• How one affiliate blog post drove more than 50% of early sales.
• How he managed high early churn in the early days until the product improved.
Keywords:
AI startups, early-stage growth, product-market fit, AI headshots, founder stories, affiliate marketing, startup tactics, SEO for startups, guerrilla marketing, startup growth strategies
(00:01:54) Zero to $10M in Two Years
(00:02:34) Exploring Ideas Before AI
(00:05:25) Discovering the AI Headshot Opportunity
(00:07:37) How Getting Fired Led to a Startup
(00:18:31) Doubling Down on Professional Headshots
(00:24:11) Early Guerrilla Marketing and Traction
(00:27:59) From $2K to $200K a Month
(00:32:13) Affiliate Marketing as a Growth Lever
(00:43:18) The Moment of True Product Market Fit
(00:47:18) Surviving Near-Failure and Burnout
Mike first raised $30M for a marketplace that never truly had product-market fit. Then he bet only $10K on ButcherBox. A few years later, he's doing $550M in revenue and he's profitable.
The difference is in his first startup he was just catering to investors— in his second one only to customers. If you’re an early founder chasing growth, listen to how Mike ditched vanity metrics, found sustainable traction, and grew ButcherBox past $500M in revenue—with no outside funding.
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Why You Should Listen
1. Why not raising can often be a powerful forcing function.
2. Why what VCs want is often not the same as what customers want.
3. How to differentiate in what seems like a commoditized market.
4. Why there is no stronger force in startups than true product-market fit.
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Keywords
product market fit, bootstrapping, butcherbox, direct to consumer, CPG subscription, grass fed beef, founder lessons, Kickstarter, food startup, early stage founder
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(00:00:00) Mastering the VC Game
(00:01:45) How I Raised $30M Without Product Market Fit
(00:08:21) Why my VC-backed Startup Failed
(00:15:34) Growing Revenue but Losing Money
(00:28:07) Early Signals of Real Product Market Fit
(00:34:59) Solving Supply Chain to Scale ButcherBox
(00:39:43) Bootstrapping to $550M (The Power of Constraints)
(00:51:18) Product Market Fit from Day One
(00:52:42) Why Founders Need a Lifestyle Plan
Gopi Rangan has invested in 29 early-stage startups from scratch. He shares a simple but powerful approach to picking the right VCs, structuring your pitch (long-term vision + short-term plan + fuzzy mid-term path), and proving you are the sort of founder every pre-seed investor craves.
If you’re raising a pre-seed or seed, Gopi’s tips will make your process faster, more targeted, and a lot less painful.
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Why You Should Listen
1. The 2-minute test for "real" pre-seed investors – Spot VCs who truly lead early rounds vs. those who waste your time.
2. His 3-step framework for finding your perfect lead – Forget the 100 investor pipeline. Zero in on 10 prospects who’ll actually write a check.
3. How to balance short-term execution with a massive mission – Win over pre-seed VCs by knowing your next 6 months and your 10-year ambition.
4. Why "business acumen" beats everything – Gopi explains how it trumps domain expertise or brand-name credentials.
5. When to be fuzzy, when to be precise – The counterintuitive approach that shows you’re open to customer feedback while still having big vision.
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Keywords
Pre-seed Funding, Early-Stage VC, Business Acumen, Go-to-Market Strategy, Founder–Investor Fit, Strategic Networking, Seed Round Pitch, Warm Introductions, Mission-Driven Startups, Conviction Investing
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(00:00:00) Why Ruthless Prioritization Wins
(00:03:29) Why Investing at Pre-seed is Personal
(00:08:36) Investing When There Are Still Typos in the Pitch Deck
(00:12:23) Spotting Founders with Exceptional Business Acumen
(00:17:21) Great Ideas in the Hands of the Right Founder
(00:26:29) The Practical Guide to Raising Your Seed Round
Cardiologist Jim Min watched too many 50-year-olds die with no heart-attack warning. He co-founded Cleerly to automate detailed coronary scans—no invasive procedures, no endless manual work.
Yet healthcare’s glacial pace, payers, and federal approvals all stand in his way.
Hear how he’s testing AI across thousands of patients, fighting for universal insurance coverage, and coping with near-burnouts. If you’re a founder navigating hyper-regulated markets, Jim’s journey is the blueprint.
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Why You Should Listen
1. Heart Disease Kills More Than All Cancers Combined – The staggering truth behind silent heart attacks (and why most diagnoses come too late).
2. Jim’s Big Bet on Early Detection – He’s using advanced AI to spot “dangerous plaque” long before a patient gets chest pain or drops dead.
3. A 10–15 Year Fight to Save Lives – The brutal reality of building a medtech startup in a system that moves slower than any other.
4. Surviving a 17-Day Runway – How his mission-focus (and supportive backers) pulled Jim’s startup back from the brink.
5. Why repeated failure drives game-changing breakthroughs
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Keywords
Heart Disease Detection, Medtech Startup, Coronary CT Angiogram, AI in Healthcare, Early Heart Attack Prevention, FDA Approval Process, CPT Code Reimbursement, Plaque Imaging, Cardiovascular Innovation, Clinical Trials
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(00:00:00) Embracing Failure & Surviving Dark Days
(00:01:56) From Cardiologist to Startup Founder
(00:03:07) What Most People Don’t Know About Heart Attacks
(00:06:39) Using AI & Imaging to Predict Heart Attacks
(00:09:19) Why Cleerly Needed to Exist
(00:16:34) The Reality of Healthtech
(00:20:41) How Cleerly Built its First Product—and Why it Wasn’t an MVP
(00:28:33) Raising $225M to Prove a Radical Idea
(00:33:57) Finding Product-Market Fit & the Fight Worth Having
Adam Robinson once struggled with a stagnant email SaaS stuck at $3M ARR, but he kept experimenting until he found how to solve a problem no one else was tackling—and everything changed. Suddenly, buyers were begging for his identity-based marketing tool—so he spun out Retention.com and grew it to $14M+ in annual profit with no outside funding.
In this episode, Adam reveals why he ignored “scalable hacks” until his product proved undeniable, the two keys that finally unleashed product-market fit, and how he uses no-friction brand marketing on LinkedIn to sign up thousands of new leads.
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Why You Should Listen
1. He chose profit over fundraising – Adam shows how ignoring “growth-hack hype” and focusing on real word-of-mouth built a wildly profitable SaaS.
2. Shocking pivot to product-market fit – A failed email tool spun out a game-changing identity product that users demanded.
3. The #1 trap killing early-stage founders – Why “growth hacking” tactics fail without genuine pull, and what to do instead.
4. Bootstrapping to $14M profit – His surprising path from 3M stalled ARR to unstoppable momentum (with a team of only six).
5. LinkedIn brand building done right – How to attract thousands of perfect-fit leads—no spammy sequences required.
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Keywords
Bootstrapped SaaS, Product Market Fit, Email Marketing Growth, Founder Lessons, B2B LinkedIn Strategy, High Profit Margins, Startup Pivot, Word-of-Mouth Marketing, Early-Stage Experimentation
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:57) A Bootstrap Story
(00:06:33) Why Bootstrapping Often Means You Can't Lose
(00:10:36) The downside of raising VC
(00:19:53) A Case Study: Constant Contact
(00:22:45) Find an Unsolved Porblem
(00:32:06) PMF and Word of Mouth
(00:46:45) Piece of Advice
Dan Park joined Clutch when it was selling 20 cars a month. Then he grew it from $20M in 2019 to $200M in sales by 2022. He was one of Canada's fastest growing companies. Just as he was going to close a $100M round, the macro changed completely. Suddenly, he was left with only six weeks of cash. He was forced to go through a 97% down round at a $15M valuation.
Just two years later, he not only grew right back to a $575M valuation, he also doubled revenue from its previous peak to $400M.
This episode unpacks every near-disaster move, including turning off test-drives (and why it worked), re-engineering unit economics in real time, and renegotiating debt so Clutch could keep buying cars.
Dan’s hard-won lessons will change the way you think about speed, iteration, and survival.
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Why You Should Listen
1. He had just six weeks of runway – Find out exactly how Dan rescued Clutch from the brink.
2. Taking a car startup to $400M in sales – The surprising moves that made consumers buy cars online, sight unseen.
3. Cutting 75% of staff—then doubling revenue – The inside story of Clutch’s brutal pivot and swift rebound.
4. How to survive capital-intensive nightmares – Lessons on debt, term sheets, and crisis-mode fundraising.
5. Why fast iteration trumps everything – Dan’s secret to making big bets—then yanking them back if needed.
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Keywords
Used Car Marketplace, Capital-Intensive Startup, Near-Bankruptcy Turnaround, Automotive E-Commerce, Cash Flow Management, Startup Layoffs, Rapid Iteration, Debt Restructuring, Growth vs. Profitability, Founding Team Dynamics
Timestamp
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:02:23) The Birth of Clutch
(00:04:37) The Chicken and Egg Problem
(00:08:31) How Do We Scale This?
(00:14:21) Baby Steps and Achievable Milestones
(00:22:45) Becoming Profitable
(00:34:45) Do Whatever Makes Sense for The Business
(00:37:29) Finding Product Market Fit
(00:42:23) Piece of Advice
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