A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders

 "Wouldn't it be cool if..." 

Usually, those words are uttered by first-time founders. And unfortunately, they usually lead to terrible ideas.

It was no different for Plooto. Their first idea sounded cool, but it didn't provide real customer value. Fortunately, Hamed noticed it and pivoted. Not once, but twice.

This is the story of how Hamed pivoted from a Bitcoin-based payment service to an Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable platform for small businesses. If you think you might need to pivot, this is the episode for you.

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Most bad ideas are born the same way. A founder says to themselves: "Wouldn't it be cool if...". I know because I did it. "Wouldn't it be cool if your workouts were automatically tracked" was the genesis for Gymtrack, my failed startup. 

When you do this, you are starting from the solution, not the problem. Great startup ideas come from uncovering real problems. That's why we always say that before Startup Mode, there's Research Mode.

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Finding Product Market Fit is often a long journey, especially if you're a first-time founder who jumps in with two feet and no upfront research. 

It took Rodolphe FIVE pivots to get from where he started to the $10M+ ARR startup he has today. This is the story of each one of those pivots. How and why he decided to make big changes each time, and how each pivot brought him closer to product-market fit.

If you're looking for product market fit, you need to check this story out. 

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Everyone pays lip service to focus, but few understand what it really means.

Those who are truly focused often do things that look insane. That's why we say that before product-market fit, "Only the Insanely Focused Survive". 

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They say the best founders can walk through walls. Well, nothing can stop Nabeil.

For the first two years, Nabeil and his team worked out of his house. His entire house, except for his bedroom, was an office. He would nap while changes were loaded to production only to wake up 2 hours later to test again. He got in a car crash a week before launch and didn't even set aside time to deal with it.  A year later, Nabeil managed to convince a pilot to let him off a plane so he could make a business meeting! 

Insane focus meant there was only one thing that mattered: launching on time.

If you want to see how deals get closed in Startupland, check this episode out.

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Many founders start companies because they want to get rich. Honestly, that’s what I did. Unfortunately, only caring about making money often leads to bad startup ideas. Focus on value instead. 

Another observation... seed stage VCs are called “investors”, just like hedgefund managers or stock pickers. It’s a poor choice of words. Finding seed VCs to back you is less about finding “investors” and more about finding “believers”.

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To find product-market fit you need to deliver clear and exceptional customer value.

The story of Applyboard shows you exactly what that looks like. Martin changed the lives of thousands of students who he helped study abroad. He impacted not just them but their entire families. In the meantime, he delivered 10x ROI to schools: for every $1,000 they paid Applyboard they made $10,000+ on tuition. 

You can't push yourself to unicorn status. You need the market to pull you there. And that only happens if you provide incredible customer value. If you want to understand what that looks like, check this episode out.

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Two observations from the Loopio episode:

1. When you're working on your first startup, everything is hard. It's natural to think that the second time around will be much easier. It's not! 0 to 1 is always hard.

2. Most VCs will tell you that you need a really big addressable market. Yet many successful founders started off without worrying about market size at all. Early on, market size doesn't really matter.

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Starting your second startup should be much easier, right? Well, yes and no. 

Jafar was the founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Loopio, which went on to raise $200M+ and land thousands of customers.  He left to start Barley. This is the story of how he decided to leave, and what it was like to start over a second time.

On the one hand, some things, like fundraising, are much easier. On the other hand, the 0 to 1 journey is just as hard. Delivering value in a big market is no easy task, even if you've learnt from prior mistakes.

In this episode, he shares what skills transfer over and which ones don't. If you're a repeat founder, or a prior founder thinking of starting a new one, check this episode out.

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Before the pandemic, there were 24 employees at Certn (Or Certonians, as they're called). After the pandemic, there were 500. That's 20x growth in just two years. That only happens for one reason...  insane product-market fit.

This is the story of how Certn got there. Andrew (CEO) walks us through his five-step process to find product-market fit. He used that in the early days of Certn to veto his initial idea and quickly shift to tenant verification. Through continuous PMF-ing, he uncovered employee verification as well. When COVID hit, he was in the right place, at the right time, with the right product.

The rest is history.

If you're on the road to product-market fit, you need to check this episode out.

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