#pmfit

1. The Market Isn't Big Enough

Not much you can do here.

2. Competitors have a head-start & control resources

If competitors have a lock-in on resources regarding distribution, it doesn't matter if you have product/market fit.

3. Someone else can build a 10x better product

If you're one of the first products in the market, be careful of other people simplifying what you've done and releasing it to your audience.

4. Someone else can reach a core & influential audience before you

If you don't grow fast enough, someone else could leverage a tangential audience and essentially be there first. It's a lot harder to acquire a customer once they have any solution.

The Shit.

That's right Mr/s Entrepreneur. Product / market fit is the shit. It's like finding a twenty dollar bill in your jeans after you just did the laundry. But don't just take my word for it, let's ask Marc Andreessen. What do you think Marc?

The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit -Pmarca Guide to Startups Part 4

That's not too clear. Can you be a bit more specific?

Do whatever is required to get to product / market fit...you can ignore almost everything else. -Pmarca Guide to Startups Part 4

Nice. I like ignoring things. Thanks for the tip, guy. How about you gentle reader? Are you intrigued? You ought to be. If not, no worries, you probably know a lot more than Marc. He's only started two billion dollar companies and then Ning and then a $300 million venture fund during the recession. Total n00b.

How About Less Hype & More Definition?

Fair enough.

PM fit simply means building the right product for the right market. Reaching PM fit requires tracking both variables: the quality of your product and the intensity of its impact (market). If either side of the equation lags, so will your startup.

Building a great business isn't just about building great products. It's about building great products that have an impact. If you toil away for years developing a knife that spreads chunky peanut butter as though it were smooth, you may build something great (in terms of its goal), but your impact will likely be limited by market size.

The iPod/Pad/Phone aren't successful because they are marvels of design and engineering. They're successful because they are marvels of design and engineering that everyone wants.

As a startup, you must maintain this dual focus. If you fail to do so, you'll end up with either a mediocre product in a great market or a great product that almost no one wants. Neither outcome is particularly exciting.

Of Note

The term "product / market fit" was actually coined by a former professor of mine, Andy Rachleff, who founded Benchmark Capital and co-taught by far the best course of my college or graduate career. His partners in crime for the course on Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital were Pete Wendell (founder of Sierra Ventures) and Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google). Each class they would tackle various entrepreneurial issues simultaneously from the perspective of the VC and the entrepreneur and at lunch they would sit and answer any questions students could come up with. Scoreboard.

Reading List

I've read a fair number of business books in my day. Inevitably bits from my favorites will sneak into these posts in ways I don't fully appreciate. To mitigate any awkwardness, I will say that The Art of the Start, Zag, Getting Real, Don't Make Me Think, The Brand Gap, Envisioning Information, and the essays of Marc Andreessen and Paul Graham are all recommended reading and much better writing than I can offer. It also wouldn't hurt to subscribe to Fred Wilson's blog. It's home to some of the most consistently high-quality startup writing on the web.

If you can't read it all, start with these:

The Art of the Start (Chapters 1-7)

Getting Real (All)

Zag(pp 24-25, 28-32, and 65-75)

Don't Make Me Think (All)

Pmarca essays (Guide to Startups #1-9)

Paul Graham essays 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

It's Alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am going to try to weave all these essays into some sort of cohesive narrative so don't expect things to stay the same. Expect them to evolve and change over time, which is more fun anyhow. If you want to stay up to date on changes, head over to my blog where I will publish all updates to this and other parts of the site. Or just click here for the rss feed.

Disclaimer

I'm not convinced I've done enough to be writing about startups, but.

These essays are about getting to Product / Market Fit, but I've never actually done that. That is not a self-admonition. The way I define PM Fit (as it will often be abbreviated) is such that very few folks have.

Short Answer

Excellent question. I'm not entirely sure.

Long Answer

Edward Tufte recommends reading the final chapter of Strunk & White's Elements of Style once a year. The reason for this required re-reading is that with each passing year of experience, we are better able to understand the chapter's 21 writing commandments.

When we're younger, we can only superficially understand recommendations like "Do not overwrite." or "Be clear." Experience gives us access to deeper levels of meaning in these recommendations and enables us to better follow them.

So much of startup advice works the same way. It comes in the form of simple, declarative statements that require personal experience to fully understand. Often, and as is the case here, that understanding comes only in hindsight.