Unpacking Product Market Fit

About this episode

This episode we are going to discuss the topic of product-market-fit. Using different examples and strategies to understand what would work for your startup.

This is the 120th episode of The Startup Story and in almost every episode our featured founder has had one startup failure in their past and each failure can be attributed to numerous factors. Factors like team makeup, marketing challenges, financial limitations, and sometimes the failure is a result of technical challenges. With all the various reasons a company might fail, the most prevalent reason was their failure to find product-market-fit.
Is product-market-fit so elusive? Is it something that can only be discovered by venture-backed firms? No, those aren’t true at all of product-market-fit.
The greatest thing about product-market-fit is that most of the work in finding product-market-fit can happen cheaply and at a very early stage in the startup lifecycle. The challenge is that we begin to drink our hype kool-aid and don’t try to assess product-market-fit until we hit hurdles much later on, and after thousands…and sometimes, hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent.
Smart startup founders front-load the work to determine product-market-fit. It truly is foundational for any and all startup projects…especially if you want to succeed.
Your sole purpose, when you are in the idea to MVP stage, is to validate your assumptions and to prove that people want what you are making. Everything…and I mean, everything else is secondary.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• How to find product market fit.
• How to validate your idea and prove that it will be successful.
• How to validate your assumptions and prove that your product will work - using platforms like Reddit and Medium.
• How to find a vast amount of customers that have a want or need for the product- that solves their problem
• How to keep up with the ever-changing market and keeping your product up to date by looking at the market from a high or low altitude.
• A basic process to find product fit - choose target market, find the problem in it, define your unique value (especially your unique MVP) and the test for product market fit.
• Shares the ideology that more people that are excited by the product reflects how successful the product will be.
• How to not waste money on mockup products.
• Shares different ways to test your product - using things like pre-sale and A/B testing

Resources from this episode

FREE 3-Day Livestream Event: https://live.grindology.com/

Join Grindology: https://grindology.com/

ExpressVPN: Get 3 Months Free → https://www.expressvpn.com/startupstory

Get Emails: https://app.getemails.com/referrals/newaccount?ref=R18HWW5

The Startup Story Inner Circle: https://www.thestartupstory.co/vip
The Startup Story on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thestartupstory
The Startup Story is now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/jamesmckinney
The Startup Story on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestartupstory

BOOK- Eric Ries Lean startup - https://amzn.to/3sdC1yi
Mockup Tool - https://moqups.grsm.io/tss

Share the podcast

The Startup Story community has been so incredible sharing our podcast with others, and we thank you! We do have more stories to tell and more people to reach. There are three ways you can help.

First, the most powerful way you can support this podcast is by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Second, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and be sure to share your favourite Startup Story episodes with your friends and on social media. Tag or mention @thestartupstory so we can give you a virtual high five and a thank you!

Lastly, share the podcast on LinkedIn. The Startup Story podcast is for entrepreneurs. Don’t underestimate the power of sharing on LinkedIn so other entrepreneurs can discover us.

With your support, we hope to further our reach in encouraging and inspiring the founders of today and tomorrow. Thank you!

EPISODE CREDITS

This episode was made possible due to the support of our sponsor Grindology. Visit https://grindology.com/ to obtain founder-direct tactics and strategies.