Myths about product/market fit, and how to find it | David Hsu & Bryan Schreier

The product/market fit is the one and only priority for early-stage startups, but the journey to finding it is arduous. There’s substantial misinformation about what it is, how to find it, and what it feels like when you have it. Join David Hsu, founder and CEO of Retool, and Bryan Schreier, partner at Sequoia, as they discuss common misconceptions about PMF, how Retool found it (including the missteps along the way), and whether there’s a formula for finding it (yes, David thinks).
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[@DouglasDrouillard]

Great talk. Sales is the validation that matters. PLG is a nice way to avoid sales but still feel like you are being productive. Lean Startup, where you do research and then validate with more research, leads to overly optimistic feedback.
The word that is missing in this conversation is 'demand'. Demand is “needing to accomplish something' by prospects. What are they trying to do outside of the product. It is not creating demand for the product. Then see if your theory of where the world is going and your product matches the demand. The business unfolds based on sales. Rob Snyder is doing great work in this area and taking away the mysticism.
Also, PMF also has a time component. You can have PMF one quarter, but then lose it. Worked at a startup where they thought they had PMF, and maybe they did for 18 months. But then things changed.

[@FundiCrypto]

Can this guy just let David talk…

[@MartinTHoffmann]

Super helpful interview, understanding how they tested the messaging around a core product.
However I am confused about complexities of determining product market fit they discuss. As an investor I worked with a FMCG company, who by nature, launches many products. There we simply measured organic adoption of the product versus sales/marketing driven growth. What am I missing?

[@bjvu9460]

Product market fit is a bunch of nonsense that Ycombinator came up with . Paul Graham is wise but they are just as clueless as most. when 97 percent of YC companies dont understand what the true definition is, and they clearly cant explain it outside of claiming PMF is when a company gets to a unicorn status then its a bunch of nonsense. YC has claimed that even with a few hundred million in earnings that a company doesnt have pmf and at that point its just a bunch of nonsense. They also claim that people have to love your product and cant do without it and that is another nonsense. Most tech products arent needed but people use it ..

[@dishankshah5080]

You need to checkout Den Oslen video on product market fit

[@hodlTheRocket]

I’ve worked at a company that hit ~$11B in valuation, then lost 97% of that. The product looked promising on the surface, but it was apparent that as we onboarded more users, we were gonna have high churn eventually. It was just delayed churn because the product took a while to setup, and wasn’t easy to simply stop using
It’s really hard to be worth that much and NOT have PMF, but it’s possible in specific edge cases. Most people will not be these cases

[@yassinevuran9381]

This comment of yours tells me all I need to know about your understanding of PMF and your knowledge of YC.

[@byswik5839]

So what are the alternatives? Any resources or books you recommend?

[@byswik5839]

​@@hodlTheRocketwhat company?

[@MrMattgood14]

Chapterssssss

[@oceancrossingutopia]

David Hsu is a SNL character, right?

[@NobodyInTraining]

Seems like a nice guy, but he speaks like a caricature of a nerd 😂

[@benjaminfayle5100]

I wish he wouldn’t have cut off David just as he was getting to the good stuff. Worst interviewer- likes to listen to himself talk