After co-founding my own product and struggling to find a product-market fit, I’ve found myself working with as a mentor with early-stage founders who are often grappling with the same questions: How do I get my product to market? How do I know if I’ve found a product-market fit? Through these experiences—both my own and from mentoring others—I’ve learned that PMF isn’t a single milestone you hit and move on from; it’s an evolving process that distinguishes products that merely exist from those that truly resonate and thrive.
I’ve been in your shoes—feeling lost, second-guessing every move, and wondering if you’ll ever reach that elusive PMF. I felt stuck, and these are thoughts from my mentors and fellow founders that helped me to move forward:
Nail Down What Product-Market Fit Actually Means
Let’s clear the air about PMF: it’s not just a buzzword or the result of hitting a few KPIs. PMF is when your product becomes a must-have, not a nice-to-have, for a specific audience. It’s when your solution addresses a real pain point so effectively that customers are willing to pay, return, and tell others. In essence, it’s when your product starts pulling you into the market rather than you pushing it.
Don’t Start with a Solution—Start with a Hypothesis
A common mistake I’ve made (and I did it myself) is jumping straight into building the product without validating the problem first. Start by framing a hypothesis: What’s the problem you’re trying to solve? Who exactly is facing it, and why is it a big enough pain? One mentee was obsessed with building a complex AI tool, only to learn that their market prioritized data privacy over advanced features. Knowing the real needs of your audience is everything.
Action Step: Write down your assumptions about the problem, solution, and target market. Rank them by risk and focus on validating the riskiest one first.
Get Out There: Talk to Real Customers
Get out of your comfort zone and talk directly to potential users. This isn’t about selling; it’s about listening deeply to their challenges and frustrations. I can’t count how many times founders (myself included) have been wrong about who their target audience really is. My mantra was "I am not representative, I want to know my user as much as I can, so I can build the product they will use".
Action Step: Conduct 20-30 interviews with potential users. Focus on open-ended questions about their pain points, daily routines, and current solutions.
Build an MVP That’s Bare Bones But Insightful
Your MVP is not your final product; it’s a learning tool. It should be the simplest version of your product that can still solve the core problem and validate your hypothesis. Early on, I made the mistake of overbuilding and wasting time on features that didn’t matter.
Action Step: Strip your product down to the essential feature set that directly addresses the core problem. Use low-code tools (Bubble, Adalo, webhooks, bots, manual problem solving) or simple prototypes to get feedback fast.
Measure, Learn, and Adapt Fast
Once your MVP is out there, the real work begins. Pay close attention to user engagement, retention, and feedback. Are people using it regularly? Are they coming back? Are they recommending it? If not, dig deeper into why. One founder I worked with realized their onboarding was too complicated, leading to drop-offs. By simplifying it, they significantly improved user retention. While your audience is small, you can afford talking to each user personally, this will teach you more than any Y-combinator course.
Action Step: Define key metrics like retention rates, NPS, or DAUs that signal PMF. Use these metrics as your guide for making adjustments and iterations.
Know When to Pivot or Persevere (this is really hard!)
There will be times when the data tells you it’s not working, and that’s okay. The key is to be flexible—pivot or persevere based on what you learn. Psychologically, I find it hard, but it's helpful to think: t’s not about abandoning your vision; it’s about adjusting your approach. My product successfully shifted from B2C to B2B after realizing businesses were more willing to pay for mobile photography, leading to a better product-market fit.
Action Step: Regularly revisit your assumptions and be honest about what’s working and what’s not. Don’t be afraid to change direction if the evidence points that way.
Scale Only When You’re Ready
You’ve found PMF—congrats! But don’t hit the growth button just yet. I’ve seen founders scale prematurely and crash because their infrastructure couldn’t handle the load. Make sure your product, team, and systems are ready to scale sustainably. Stress-test everything from customer support to technology.
Action Step: Make sure you have a solid plan for scaling customer support, technology, and operations. Test your systems to ensure they can handle the increased demand before you scale.
How It Feels When You Really Have Product-Market Fit
You’ll know when you’ve hit PMF because it feels like you’re holding onto a rocket ship. Instead of constantly pushing your product into the market, the market starts pulling you. Customers are not just using your product— they’re raving about it, referring others, and providing unsolicited feedback. You might even struggle to keep up with demand, a good problem to have. Your team’s focus shifts from trying to convince users to address how to serve the growing base better.
You’ll feel the urgency—not from trying to make things work but from the sheer momentum of growth. It’s exhilarating, it’s hectic, and it’s the most rewarding part of the startup journey. In the words of Marc Andreessen, "You can always feel it when product-market fit is not happening. The customers aren’t quite getting value, the sales cycle takes too long, and lots of deals never close. And you can always feel product-market fit when it’s happening. The customers are buying as fast as you can add servers, hiring sales and support staff".
From my journey and from guiding other founders, I’ve learned that the path towards PMF is rarely straightforward. Every founder feels lost at some point—it’s just part of the process. Keep going—you’re closer than you think.
Image: Anonymous YC company growth chart from YC co-founder Paul Graham