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Seibel's whole point is that a market only counts once real customers are grabbing the product as fast as you can make it and paying for it, not because a report says the category is big. That is the exact test for your situation: a huge paper market with almost nobody paying is the opposite of the hair-on-fire demand he describes. Read it as a gut-check on whether you have found a real problem or just a large-sounding one.
The Real Product Market Fit
From Michael Seibel (Y Combinator) by Michael Seibel ~4 min read
- Real product market fit shows up as customers desperate to use and pay for the product, not as a big total-addressable-market slide.
- If usage is calm and nobody is paying, you almost certainly have not found the burning problem yet, however large the market looks.
- A small group of customers who love you beats a large group who kind of like you.
