How to build a sustainable startup without running out of runway
What is the number one reason Product-Market Fit (PMF) work gets deprioritised? Because of the pressures to grow.
In a growth role at a startup, you feel a lot of pressure to grow and to perform. Whether this is from investors, your founder or the fact that you know you have a limited runway. Whenever you aren’t working on that growth problem, it feels like you are wasting time and not making progress.
Sure, ideally, you’d have joined after there was PMF, but that is not always how it goes.
So it is often not a case of people who have not thought of working on PMF or don’t want to do it, but rather the mismatch of priorities and the challenge of time. It is like bouldering in some ways.
I love to boulder, basically climbing a 3–4 meter wall without a rope. Due to the route’s shortness, boulderers can often attempt a tricky climb several times before making it to the top.
Many people think bouldering is pure strength, pushing through a hard part of the climb. However, the biggest factor is how you position yourself and plan your route.
For example, when you are 2 meters up and are stuck, you can try clinging on for dear life, exhaust your muscles, and, more often than not, fall. Or you can jump off, shake it out, and evaluate the best route to reach the top.
The latter works better, but too often, startups choose the first. As a result, they push through challenging growth periods, hoping things will get better rather than seeing whether they have the foundations in place, Product-Market Fit.
Progress to growth is progress to Product-Market Fit.
This is what growth looks like pre/post PMF:
You won’t see that high growth if you don’t find Product-Market Fit first. You won’t find a Product-Market Fit if you…