Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures: The Product Market Fit Podcast

How do you know when an early-stage startup idea is working, and what do you do if it isn’t? 

Today we talk with Sarah Leary, the Co-Founder of Nextdoor, the iconic neighborhood network that enables local communities to receive trusted information, give and get help, get things done, and build real-world connections with those nearby. Sarah gives us insight into the early days of Nextdoor: the pivots they made, community-building strategies they used, and how they found product-market fit on their path to being adopted by over 250,000 communities in 11 countries. 

Join us as we discuss:

•  How Nextdoor found product-market fit. 

For more resources from Sarah on how to validate your startup idea and start your company, check out the Unusual Ventures Field Guide module here: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/building-conviction About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services.   

Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness, 
and Vivun. 

About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/).

When running a startup, finding product-market fit is a crucial measurement to the success of the business. Today, we talk about the cybersecurity company over 2.5 million developers have tried, Snyk. Snyk is a developer-friendly security platform for anyone responsible for securing code.

Hear our conversation with Co-Founder Guy Podjarny and Ben Williams, VP of Product at Snyk, about the early days of Snyk and how they have found product-market fit.

• How Snyk has found product-market fit

More information about Guy Podjarny and Ben Williams and today’s topics:

• LinkedIn Profiles: Guy Podjarny and Ben Williams

About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services. 

Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness, 
and Vivun. 

About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/).

How do software startups find product-market fit? How do you know if you have it? What does it take to get there? These questions keep every early stage founder up at night.

In this introductory episode, we discuss our goals for the show and who it’s for.

Hear our conversation with Sandhya Hegde, General Partner at Unusual Ventures about

• The biggest challenges faced by the startup ecosystem today

More information about Sandhya Hegde and today’s topics:

• LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde

To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Startup Field Guide on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

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About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services.

Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness, 
and Vivun.

About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/).