Product-market fit only makes things easier if you’ve got the rest right!
Uber investor Marc Andreesen once said:
“Product-Market fit is the only thing that matters” and Reid Hoffman Linkedin has said “Premature scaling is the most common cause of startup death”.
Conversely, does this mean that once you have achieved product-market fit, you can start scaling immediately and you are sure to be successful? I would say: maybe, probably not.
Yes, 9 out of 10 start-ups fail. And yes, most of them probably failed because they offered something that the market didn’t really want. But I do have some reservations about the rest becoming successful because the PMF has been reached.
What it was like in my former cybersecurity company
When I achieved product-market fit with our company, it made our work easier, but our jobs remained difficult and stressful.
How it went in detail – In my former cybersecurity company, we had built the right product, but we tried to sell it to the wrong buyer in the first 2 years. ICP sends its regards (this is also part of PMF).
When we found out that the Security Officer was our buyer– and not the Head of HR or CIO – we adjusted our focus, but sales were still not significantly better than before. This was because we also had other challenges to solve, such as sales channels, multipliers, perception, “being found”, “language”, presentation, etc. This was partly due to the strategy, which we couldn’t agree on, but our sluggish implementation was also an important reason.
And: when demand really took off two years later, we were unable to deliver because we didn’t have the staff for it, we hadn’t laid the foundations for it and we didn’t have the money. In short: lack of “execution” and “no cash” (despite dazzling sales!)
We worked our way down the A…. and took off very, very slowly. Fortunately, neither my mind nor my body was damaged, at least here the routines helped me to stay healthy and confident.
What has to be right besides product-market fit
Exactly – PMF alone is not enough. ‘Just’ having something on offer that people want does not guarantee business success!
So I would like to tweak Andreesen’s quote a little:
When you have the right strategy, the right people, appropriate cash and your company and yourself are executing well, then Product-Market fit is the only thing that matters!
[“If you have done everything around it right, then product-market fit is the only thing that matters”. ]
Building Cyberdise methodically
By the way: Entrepreneurs who use a proven method for their personal well-being and also build up their company methodically have a 4x chance of success. And that’s what I’m doing with CYBERDISE | Cybersecurity Awareness (https://cyberdise-awareness.com/) and that’s why we’re looking for investors and advisory boards right now.
What methods do we use? Take a look at founders2 (https://founders2.com) [Disclaimer: I am a co-founder of this program because Switzerland and Europe deserve more entrepreneurs!]
So long, Palo
[1] Berlin für DigitalWirtschaft, Saas, Ecommmerce und KI; München für Mobility, Health, DeepTech und Industrie; Hamburg für Medien E-Commerce;Frankfurt / Darmstadt für Fintech, Insurtech und Cybersecurity und dann noch Köln, Leipzig, Nürnberg, Karlsruhe und gar Oldenburg (BioTech)
