Video · ~45 min

How to Start a Startup: Finding Product-Market Fit

Peter Reinhardt (Segment) · Y Combinator (Startup Library) Free Beginner

Segment's founder walks through failures and near-misses so you can feel the contrast between not having fit and having it. Because it shows the wrong turns as vividly as the right one, you learn to spot the difference in your own product. A grounded case study to sit alongside the frameworks.

  • Study failures to recognize the absence of fit in your own data
  • The pivot into fit often looks obvious only in hindsight
  • Users pulling hard on one use case is the moment to double down
Open on ycombinator.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. How do I know if I've found product-market fit?

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. The nuanced counterweight: PMF isn't a single binary moment, it can be lost, and 'market' is doing more work than founders... a16z.com Article · ~20 min read 12 Things About Product-Market Fit Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
  4. This is the essay that forces the honest question underneath your idea: are you building a growth company or a good small... Paul Graham Essay · ~20 min read Startup = Growth Paul Graham
  5. 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... Michael Seibel (Y Combinator) Essay · ~4 min read The Real Product Market Fit Michael Seibel
  6. Video · Talk, roughly 30 minutes David Rusenko: How To Find Product Market Fit David Rusenko (Weebly co-founder)
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