How to Find Product Market Fit
for your Startup

Product-market fit means when people like your product so much that they pay for it, keep using it, and feel the loss when it disappears.

But how do you know if you have PMF?

Here is the framework I use - with the exact numbers and metrics you need - so you know right now if you are ready to grow your startup.

I hear this all the time and I bet you have heard this before as well:
‍
Founders tell me, "People love our product - we’re getting a ton of likes on
LinkedIn and people DM us and say they love our idea.”

And I'm like, "Awesome - and how many of those people actually paid you?"

And usually, ... there's this little pause.
“Well, they haven’t tried it yet - but they liked it on LinkedIn”.

The issue is that liking a post is free. Commenting is free.
Sending you a DM and saying "This is awesome," is free.

But pulling out a credit card and paying for your product - that´s a completely different story.

I know this because I fell into exactly the same trap.
When I built my first startup, I got a ton of people who said - “I love what you are doing”. I remember sitting in my apartment getting a ton of likes and DMs but I still had 0 paying customers.

And I was wondering what the heck I was doing wrong.

You see, it doesn't matter how many people like your product on social media, how many people are in your waitlist, or how many people tell you they would use it.

There's only one thing that matters:
Do people actually pay for it?

Open your analytics - and look for how many people who used your free plan upgraded to your paid plan. And you look for this number:

→ If people don't need a credit card to sign up, you want to see somewhere around 15% to 20% of trial users converting to paid.

→ If you do require a credit card upfront, that number should be a lot higher - like 30% or more.

→ And if you're freemium, it's much lower, about 2% to 5%.

One thing I want you to know - because I was chasing random numbers for far too long. If you don’t hit that number, don't panic about it.
Instead, create your own benchmark. Measure your numbers for this month, improve your product, and if the numbers go up, do more of it.

Track your own numbers every month - and just try to beat it.

Having PMF is not only about - do people pay for your product - but also are people coming back?

People buy things they regret all the time. We've all done it.
You order something because you're excited about it, and two weeks later it's sitting in a drawer somewhere.

Same thing happens with software.
People sign up excited, and then 2 days later... they stop opening it.

When people pay for your product - that’s good.
But when they stay with you that shows you that they really love it.

Actually... let me tell you this little story about a founder from my mastermind:

He launched on Product Hunt. And the launch went incredibly well.
He got 412 upvotes. People were signing up. He even sent me a screenshot and said, ... "Hell yeah... I finally made it."

And let me be honest, if you'd only looked at those graphs, you probably would've thought the same thing.

30 days later and we talked again.
Almost everyone was gone. Big oof.

People signed up, they tried it, and after 2 weeks, they just stopped using it.

That's the real test - what happens after the initial spike?
When the launch is over - after people tried it because they were curious. Do they still come back? That's the question.

Open your analytics - take every paying customer you had a month ago and check how many of them are still paying you this month.

For most early-stage SaaS businesses, you want that number at 90% or higher.

‍Anything below that, and you don't have PMF yet.
You have people who try your product once and then leave.

If you scale now, you end up in the same place as the founder I told you about. You can get a ton of new users, but a couple of weeks later, they just leave.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, if you want help with all of that - how to get people to pay for your product and how to get people to stay with you - you can join my startup mastermind.

You will also get personal coaching from me and you can talk to other founders to see what worked for them.

You can join here:

People pay for your product. And they stick around. That's great.
But here´s the real test if you have PMF. And it’s what many founders skip:

Back when I ran my first startup, if you'd asked me what it actually did,
I could've talked about it for 30 minutes straight. I could explain you every feature, every workflow and every use case. But that’s not the point.
‍
The question is - can people explain it?

The test works like this - call 10 customers and ask them:
1. What does my product help you do?
2. What's one thing you'd actually miss if this disappeared tomorrow?

Then just listen. Let them answer. Write every answer down.
Like, really. Don't trust your memory. Write down exactly what they say - in their own words.

Now, if you get ten completely different answers ... that's a bad sign.
It usually means that your positioning isn't clear.

If 7 out of 10 people basically describe the same outcome... that’s what you want. But if every answer is different ... that’s a real problem.
Because you don’t know in which direction you need to improve your product.

If that happens - before you build one new feature - take a step back and think what big problem you are actually solving. And double down on that. No dark mode, no fancy animations and no integrations.

Focus on solving that big problem only.

This one took me a while to actually get. When people pay for your product, stick around and can explain the outcome - the question changes.

It’s not anymore - "Is the product good?"
It’s "Why isn’t my startup growing faster?"

You need to figure out whether you've got a demand problem or a distribution problem. Here’s the easiest way I know to think about this:

Let's say someone finds your product. Maybe they find it via Google or via a social media post - whatever it is - they find you. Now ask yourself... What happens next?
‍
Do they sign up, convert and stick around? If the answer is yes... then your product is fine. Then the problem is that not enough people know you exist.

That's a distribution problem.

Don't spend the next six months building new features.
Instead figure out how to get in front of more of the right people.
Maybe that's creating content on social media, sending cold emails or building partnerships.

The point is, your next breakthrough probably isn't inside the product.
It's about getting more people to see it.

Now let's say people are finding you. You get a lot of traffic on your website. People sign up. Maybe they even try the product.

And then... they just leave.

That's not a distribution problem.

Your product simply isn´t creating enough value for people.
And please - please - don’t fall for this trap so many founders make.
When you have this problem, don’t think “Maybe I just need more traffic. Let’s try ads.”

Let me tell you - more traffic doesn't fix this.
If people don’t find the value in your product, you can get millions of users, but they will leave after 2 days.

Instead, go back to your customers. Look at your top 5 customers - the ones who use your product every day and look at what features they use.
And lead all the new people directly to this feature.

For example, if your top users are all using a feature that’s currently hidden behind a 5-step onboarding flow - cut that. Lead people straight to that one big feature.

You are not yet ready to grow when:

• Users are curious but don’t pay.
• People test your product but leave immediately.
• People don’t know what big problem you solve.
• You don´t know if you have a distribution or demand problem.

You are ready to grow when:
‍
• People pay for your product.
• People stay with you.
• People can describe the value you provide.
• You know if you should focus distribution or demand.

When you can check those - you are ready to scale your startup.

Now, if you want help with all of that - your PMF, how to build a quick demo, how to use AI in your startup the right way, etc. - that's exactly what we work on in my startup mastermind.

You get a clear roadmap for your startup, personal coaching from me, and you can join a community of founders so you can see what worked for them.

You can join here: