Article · ~20 min read

12 Things About Product-Market Fit

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) · a16z.com Free Intermediate

The nuanced counterweight: PMF isn't a single binary moment, it can be lost, and 'market' is doing more work than founders think. Read after the Andreessen essay to avoid the common traps.

  • PMF is a spectrum, not an on/off switch, and it can decay.
  • Product-user fit often comes before product-market fit.
  • Beware false positives from a small, unrepresentative group.
Open on a16z.com ↗

It answers 10 questions

  1. Should I worry that my market is already crowded with competitors?
  2. What's the difference between an MVP and just a cheap, half-finished product?
  3. My first 5 customers were friends who signed up to be nice. How do I know if any of them actually want the product?
  4. How do I know if I've found product-market fit?
  5. When should I pivot vs. persevere?
  6. I've exited one company. Does my past success give me founder-market fit in a totally new industry?
  7. I am a domain expert but not a builder, is my idea real or just insider bias?
  8. I'm a student with no work experience. Can I have founder-market fit at all, or should I wait?
  9. How do I actually measure whether a launch worked, beyond the vanity upvotes and traffic spike?
  10. I relaunched a product that failed the first time. How do I frame it so it doesn't look like I'm just recycling a flop?

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. The essay that put 'product-market fit' into the startup vocabulary. Read it for the gut-level description of what PMF feels... pmarchive.com Essay · ~15 min read The Only Thing That Matters Marc Andreessen
  3. Turns the vague feeling of product-market fit into a number you can move. Ask users how they would feel if they could no longer... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit Rahul Vohra
  4. The definitive essay on where good ideas come from: notice problems you personally have, don't force it. Use it as the lens for... paulgraham.com Essay · ~20 min read How to Get Startup Ideas Paul Graham
  5. The free tool for running the how-would-you-feel-without-this survey that underpins the Superhuman method, giving you a... Sean Ellis and GoPractice Tool · Free tool Product/Market Fit Survey Sean Ellis
  6. Video · ~50 min How to Evaluate Startup Ideas Kevin Hale, Y Combinator
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →