Product Market Fit or PMF is a topic I have been obsessed with for a while now. It is arguably the single most important event in the early stages of a startup’s journey. Given this, it is a pity that PMF is one of the most misunderstood and misused terms in startup terminology, with varied definitions including touchy-feely ones like ‘PMF is like love, you’ll know it when you have it’. The lack of common ground over a definition of PMF means that founders do not have a commonly understood framework for understanding it and working towards PMF. Hence I set out to create one, leveraging my work over the past several years of working closely with founders to help them achieve PMF, as well as having simultaneously tracked the PMF journeys of over a hundred others. My framework, along with a systematic plan to achieve PMF accompanied by a host of case studies is laid out in this online playbook. The playbook has five parts or chapters, which I will plan to release in phases online. The chapters are detailed below.
Founders in the early days of their startup, aspiring founders, and ‘intrapreneurs’ launching a new unit / product in a larger company, will find this playbook most relevant, as they can use it as a systematic guide to work towards PMF, removing guesswork and fuzziness, out of the startup journey. PMF is easily the single biggest milestone in the early startup’s journey. Don’t leave it to chance.
About me: I am Sajith Pai (LinkedIn, Twitter). I work with Blume Ventures, an early stage Indian venture fund. I invest across consumer as well as India-focused B2B categories, typically at the seed stage. PMF is a topic I have been obsessed with for a while, given how much achieving it matters to the founders I back. I have other obsessions too, in fact too many to boot, but what is relevant here would be my interest in venture history, as well as the Indian startup ecosystem (specifically on how it is shaped by the wider Indian economy, and which in turn it influences). You will find my writings at sajithpai.com. I also co-author an annual report on the Indian startup ecosystem called The Indus Valley Report. You can share feedback on this piece at sp@sajithpai.com (I don’t respond to pitches there).
No content or opinion stated in this blog should be taken as the official view of my employer, Blume Ventures. This blog is entirely my personal view.
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Understanding PMF starts out by setting context for why PMF matters to early stage startups. It then lays out a definition for PMF; that it is a combination of two fits, PPF and MMF. It explains this through two case studies, one a success, and the other a failure. It then dives deeper into these two fits, and concludes with what the founder’s role in PMF is, as well as come caveats and thumbrules for the founder to keep in mind. By the end of the chapter, the reader should have a broader understanding of PMF, the two fits, as well as a broad playbook for iterating to PMF.
Click here to access this chapter. -
The Pick explains the importance of picking the right problem to work on, and why getting it right matters. The startup’s journey to Product Market Fit or PMF is heavily influenced by the quality of the pick. Through this chapter, the founder gets a good idea of how to pick the problem to work on, and validate that it is indeed the right one. The chapter covers the importance of the pick, the four routes to arriving at the pick (pain, personal experience, prospecting, opportunism), the criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of the pick (why this?, why now, and, why you?), and the two phases of getting to the pick (problem discovery, problem validation), so that you get the right pick that sets your startup for eventual PMF and success.
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PPF or Product to Problem Fit is the first part of PMF. This chapter titled Achieving PPF gives you the different sub-stages in the process to PPF, and how to successfully iterate towards PPF.
This chapter will be published in last quarter of 2025.
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MMF or Motion to Market Fit is the second part of PMF. This chapter titled Achieving MMF takes you through the iteration process to get you successfully to MMF, and thereby hit PMF.
This chapter will be published in first quarter of 2026.
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What do you need to do after achieving PMF? This chapter After PMF looks at how to hold on to PMF, as well as the playbook for the post-PMF phase of the startup’s journey.
This chapter will be published in second quarter of 2026.