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
Every startup needs to compete with incumbents. But it's different with AI.
AI startups need to create websites or apps from scratch and drive traffic. Incumbents can just add AI as a feature. They have distribution built in.
AI is not like previous tech revolutions. Unlike mobile, the internet, or the PC revolution, AI is not a new distribution channel. Startups are at a much bigger disadvantage than they've ever been.
In this episode, we discuss the 3 key elements you need to consider to answer the most important question:
Will you get distribution faster than incumbents get product?
Keywords
AI, startups, incumbents, distribution channels, technological shift, mobile, internet, PCs, sustaining innovation, disruptive innovation, product versus distribution, founders
Why you should listen
Andrew spoke with 120+ VCs to raise a $1.5M pre-seed round. He closed $2.7M and had demand for many millions more. He devoted 90% of his time to fundraising, but only took weeks from the first meetings to close.
99% of founders I meet do not fundraise at this level. It takes them longer to close, they have fewer choices and raise less.
This is a specific, detailed and tactical guide to closing a round. If you're ever going to raise, you need to listen.
Why you should listen
Keywords
fundraising, seed round, investors, memo, deck, pitch, negotiating terms, trust, conviction, dilution
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:02:02)How Taxwire Thought About Fundraising
(00:04:02) The Start of Taxwire
(00:06:32) Making a Memo Before a Deck
(00:09:50) Reaching Out
(00:16:10) Wanting to Oversubscribe
(00:21:32) Keeping Control and Qualifying Investors
(00:31:10) The Basic Structure of the Pitch
(00:34:24) Target Close Day
(00:39:01) The Timeline for Fundraising and Meetings
(00:44:41) Deciding Who to Accept Funds From
(00:50:18) One Piece of Advice
Zoom was THE work-from-home stock. It's down 90% from peak. The same hype that fuelled work-from-home stocks is now fuelling AI. What happened to Zoom will happen to many AI companies.
AI startups today need to carefully position against foundational models and incumbents. Here's how to think through it.
Why you should listen:
Keywords
Zoom, AI, positioning, foundational models, incumbents, use cases
Chris shares the story of how he grew Refine Labs to $22M ARR, what he did to grow so fast, and also why he regrets spending so much on growth instead of focusing on profitability.
He goes exceptionally deep on sales and marketing and provides tactical advice you can steal.
Chris is the founder of Refine Labs & Passetto. He's also a LinkedIn Top Voice with 150K followers.
Why you should listen:
Keywords:
entrepreneurship, founder sales, marketing, customer insights, zero-to-one growth, go-to-market strategy, product management, growth strategy, product-market fit
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:21) Starting e-commerce companies on the side
(00:04:56) Going all in
(00:11:30) Balancing sales and marketing
(00:18:05) Focusing on Customer FeedbackLanding the first customers
(00:27:19) Why you should not spend on advertising
(00:37:55) His most viral marketing campaign
(00:41:04) Finding Product Market Fit
Sam Altman is playing chess not checkers. He partnered with Microsoft. He partnered with Apple. He grew to $3B in ARR in 2 years. Hate him or love him, he's a strategic genius.
You'll recognize a pattern: Sam has an idea, positions correctly, lets the bets play out, and goes all-in on what works.
Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat.
In under 2 years, he has over 10M paying subscribers.
A brand name the average 60-year-old recognizes.
And, of course, his company OpenAI has $3.4B in ARR.
Keywords
ChatGPT, OpenAI, revenue growth, strategic decision-making, positioning, Sam Altman, Microsoft, Apple, AI technology,
We interview Chris Slow the CTO and Founding Engineer at Reddit. Reddit is now a ~$10B company, with nearly $1B in revenue. Their 1B+ monthly active users are so powerful they can move markets. This is the story of how it all began.
On this episode, we interview Chris Slowe, Reddit's current CTO and Founding Engineer. Chris was in YC's first-ever batch with Steve and Alexis. He was their roommate. When Chris's own startup failed, he moved over and joined them to build Reddit. This was almost 20 years ago, in 2005.
It only took them a year to hit 1 million monthly active users. But it took them well over 5 years to hit $1M in revenue. Here's the story of how they hit product-market fit and built the world's most powerful online community.
Why you should listen:
- Learn how Reddit got started in 2005 and why it took them many years to monetize
- See how word of mouth & organic growth are the key to building a community like Reddit
- Hear Chris's perspective on scaling teams and organizations, preserving culture, and signs of clear product-market fit
- Why applying lessons from your first startup to your second one is not as easy as you think it might be
Keywords
Reddit, Y Combinator, growth, startups, founders, acquisition, Conde Nast, community-driven platform, culture, word of mouth, Google, organic growth, Hipmunk, monetization, product-market fit, scaling, startup advice
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:55) The Start of Reddit
(00:07:13) Joining Reddit
(00:12:56) Building Communities
(00:20:37) The First Year of Reddit
(00:22:56) The Acquisition
(00:26:50) Staying Lean
(00:28:58) Leaving Reddit to do Hipmunk
(00:37:14) Hiring for Hipmunk
(00:41:08) Coming Back to Reddit
(00:45:05) Making the Mobile App
(00:47:13) Monetization
(00:50:05) Finding True Product Market Fit
(00:50:41) One Piece of Advice
Wardah was a PhD graduate working at a biomedical imaging startup. But all it took was two different dentists giving her two totally different diagnoses for her to quit her full-time job.
She was unemployed with no idea what to build.
All she knew was that something was broken—and she had to fix it. Her startup Overjet is now the #1 dental AI platform, valued at $550M.
Why you should listen:
- Why founder obsession is a key trait
- Why learning speed is the main KPI early on
- Why staying close to customers is how you build the right product.
- How to get customers to share data with you and let you spend time in their office, watching how they work.
Keywords
dental AI, startup journey, funding challenges, product-market fit, impact on dental industry, speed in startups, biases in fundraising
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:00:52) The Start of Overjet
(00:05:05) Obsession Increases your Chances
(00:08:15)A Bad Dentist Appointment
(00:11:35) Surpassing Dentist's Analysis Using AI
(00:15:52) Finding a Co-Founder and Fundraising
(00:24:22)Finding True Product Market Fit
(00:27:33) One Piece of Advice
Dane was the CEO of Squarespace from 2007 to 2011. He grew the company from ~$2M in revenue to ~$15M. He's a multi-time founder with multiple exits. His current startup, Odeko, raised $227M.
He takes us through his long journey as a founder of multiple companies and shares the key startup lessons he's learned.
Why you should listen:
- Why 7-day trials led to higher conversion than 30-day trials at Squarespace
- Why you should talk to customers every single day.
- Why SMB usage doesn't always translate into revenue.
- Why you need to follow customer problems over business models and TAM.
Keywords
Squarespace, Odeko, product-market fit, PMF, blogging, freemium model, trial period, data analytics, startup,, customer relationships, business model, pivot, success factors, logistics, hiring, purpose
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(0:00:0:37) Before Odeko
(00:06:54) Leaving Squarespace
(00:07:31) SumAll
(00:13:01) Conversion Rates with Free Trials
(00:16:10) The Start of Odeko
(00:20:05) Staying Close to Clients
(00:26:36) Realizing the New Model was Working
(00:31:47) Landing the First Few Customers
(00:37:00) Overhiring
(00:39:17) Finding Product Market Fit
(00:41:32) One Piece of Advice
His first startup was a cool idea: Uber for Valet Parking. Investors loved it. But the unit economics didn't work out. So he had to pivot. He ended up selling it, but decided to do things differently the second time around.
“It’s the boring stuff that makes money. Sometimes the sexy, interesting things are really great ideas, fun to use, but aren’t money makers. They aren’t durable businesses.”
With Argyle, he didn't start with a cool idea. He replaced a product customers already paid for. His pitch went from "Wouldn't it be cool if?" to "I'll do what they do but twice as well and for half the cost".
"Find a better mouse trap. Build a product that's just a better version of a product that already exists. It's a lot easier to sell."
Why you should listen:
- How to work with design partners to build the first version of your product
- How to use those partners to get credibility and make your first enterprise sale
- Keeping your sales teams small and staying close to the customer for as long as possible
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:04) The Origins of Argyle
(00:04:03) The Aha Moment
(00:15:06) When to Charge for the Product
(00:19:31)Landing the First Customer
(00:21:38) Staying Close to Customers
(00:25:16) From Seed to Series A
(00:32:06) Delivering clear ROI
(00:35:58) Finding Product Market Fit
(00:36:38) One Piece of Advice
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