I have been interviewing founders, operators, and investors on their perspectives on product-market fit (PMF hereafter) over the past few months, as part of research for the book I am writing on this topic. I thought it would be a good idea to take stock of the first ten interviews and review the definitions of PMF that have emerged. Thus, this essay where I tease out common strands and themes …
PMF Convos
All PMF Convo posts appear here.
PMF Convo #9 – Konark Singhal, Mountblue, ex-Mockbank
Konark Singhal cofounded MockBank, an edtech co that provided test prep for government exams. The startup saw some initial traction and were able to raise a small preseed round, but struggled to grow and scale. Eventually, the co was acquired by a well-funded competitor, and Konark exited MockBank to found and run Mountblue, a profitable bootstrapped coding bootcamp play. In our chat, Konark talks about his definition of PMF (effortless …
PMF Convo #8 – Prashant Singh, Jar
Prashant Singh is one of the most original thinkers I know in the Indian startup ecosystem. An ideal career for him would have been writing fiction, but he is, disappointingly for fiction readers, delightfully for us in the startup world, now golden handcuffed to product management! I think of him as a Product Manager’s Product Manager; conversations with him always lead to interesting insights and perspectives, a different take on …
PMF Convo #7 – Vasanth Kamath, smallcase
Vasanth Kamath and the smallcase team have been very intentional, deliberate operators building a well-crafted and thought-through product in smallcase. The use of lower case alphabet is deliberate (again that word!) as Vasanth and the team want everyone to think of smallcases as a common noun (like mutual funds) and not a proper noun; which of course is the opposite of how a Xerox or traditional marketer thinks! In …
PMF Convo #6 – Asad Khan, LambdaTest
This was one of the first interviews I conducted, as part of the research for my book on product market fit (PMF here onwards). Asad is cofounder & CEO, LambdaTest, building one of the most technically innovative India startups. As Satya Nadella recently put it after meeting Asad: “LambdaTest is doing for test automation what Kubernetes did for container orchestration – creating that next level of efficiency around test automation …
PMF Convo #5 – Pulkit Agrawal, Chameleon
I first heard of Chameleon, which helps SaaS companies improve their product adoption processes and practices, from Sheel Mohnot when I was interviewing him for our PMF Convo. In our convo, Sheel mentioned this company that took six years from their Seed to Series A raise. I was intrigued and asked Sheel for a connect to Pulkit Agrawal, the founder & CEO of Chameleon. I had a …
PMF Convo #4 – Nishchay A G, Jar
I interviewed Nishchay A G, the cofounder of Jar, recently, as part of the founder conversations I have been having, for my book on product market fit (PMF here onwards). Nishchay and Misbah, well-known in startup circles, and experienced operators, saw their fintech startup Jar hit escape velocity, thanks to a clever product and some compelling growth hacking. Nishchay also has a reputation for differentiated thinking in the Indian startup …
PMF Convo #3 – Sheel Mohnot, Better Tomorrow Ventures
This is interview #3 from the conversations I have been having with founders, funders and operators, as part of the research for my book on product market fit (PMF here onwards). This one is with Sheel Mohnot, and unlike the earlier two convos with founders (Anshuman Bapna and Chaitanya Ramalingegowda) this one is with a funder, a VC, Sheel Mohnot, who is fairly infamous on twitter:) Follow …
PMF Convo #2 – Anshuman Bapna, Terra.do
Here is interview #2 that I did as part of research for my book on Product Market Fit. This one is with Anshuman Bapna, now founder of ClimateTech startup Terra, and erstwhile Mygola (acquired by MakeMyTrip). I reached out to Anshuman on seeing a tweet by him describing his failed pitch to Joe Gebbia, Airbnb’s founder. Having seen this and his previous tweets, I thought what he had to say …
PMF Convo #1 – Chaitanya R, Wakefit
I am presently writing a book on product-market fit or PMF, a seminal concept in the startup world. It is a topic I have been obsessed with for a while now, given that a large part of my success rests on helping my portfolio achieve PMF. In that regard, the lack of a practical guidebook / playbook for early-stage founders on this topic has always puzzled me. In fact, for …