First Round Capital’s Post

Most people describe finding PMF as an art, not a science. We're here to change that. Introducing PMF Method. After 20 years and 500+ investments in pre-product-market fit companies, we've drawn on our data and worked with some of the world's most iconic enterprise founders, distilling what they did in their first 6 months into a free 14-week intensive experience that helps sales-led B2B founders build epic companies. In tactical sessions, we help early founders discover what customers really want, build the right v1 product, and close your first sales — all while keeping 100% of your equity. You'll work alongside a tight group of other builders at your same stage, and get to learn from the hard-earned insights from founders of $1B+ B2B companies, like Vanta's Christina Cacioppo, Looker's lloyd tabb, Plaid's Zachary Perret, Ironclad's Jason Boehmig, Lattice's Jack Altman, and Verkada's Filip Kaliszan. The Summer 2024 session of PMF Method runs from 5/29 to 8/28. Any early founder working on a new B2B SaaS company is welcome to apply — just get your application in by 5/7 (or tag a founder friend below!) More details, FAQs, and application link in the comments below 👇

How do you know if you’re on the right track? When you’re pre-product-market fit, signs of progress aren’t always obvious. Today on The Review, we asked established founders to recall when they finally felt like they’d struck a chord. The moments that jumped to mind didn’t exactly look promising on paper — but in retrospect, they were signs of real traction. Here are a few of the subtler (and sometimes even counterintuitive) cues to watch for: 💪 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. “One signal of product-market fit that I recommend you pay attention to: When something is really needed, you’ll find there are lots of very intelligent people at other organizations trying to build a version of it,” says Vercel CEO and founder Guillermo Rauch. 🪲 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐮𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬. For Clay's Kareem Amin, a flood of asks from customers was proof that the product had real pull. “Sometimes we would ship a bug and then a customer would immediately flag it,” he says. “This is in many ways a good thing because it means that they care and are using Clay. So once those things started to happen, it was clear that we were being pulled along and that a lot of our theses were right.” 😡 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭. Negative feedback may be a tough pill to swallow, but it’s far better than hearing nothing at all. “Criticism is better than people ignoring you, which means they probably don't need your product. If people start complaining, that's usually a good sign,” says Gong CPO and co-founder Eilon Reshef.

“Brand is the business value of delight. When you spend that extra time on craft, you increase the chances of reaching audiences beyond your core ICP,” says Krithika M. (former marketing leader at Stripe, now VP of Marketing at OpenAI). She shares an example from Stripe when going that extra mile to add in whimsical details won the team a hit campaign — even if it took longer to ship. “We wanted to launch a page that showcased our open-source contributions. But we delayed the launch of that page by almost a month and a half because our design team wanted to implement the Game of Life in the header background of that page,” she says. “It went viral. And that speaks to the craftsmanship that we place on our product.”

Time is precious when you are pitching your startup in front of VCs at a partner meeting, so you want to make sure you are utilizing all your time correctly. One technique to try here is to practice two versions of your slides: short and long. “The former will help prepare you for a situation where you’re being interrupted non-stop, while the latter helps you in the situation where all you hear are crickets,” says First Round Partner Liz Wessel. As a former founder, Wessel remembers the significance (and the pressure) that comes from preparing for a first-time fundraise. She shares seven more strategies of how seed stage founders can nail their first VC partner meeting at the link in the comments. 👇