The clearest sign of finding product-market fit is feeling "pull" from the market.

But what does "pull" look like?

👇 Read on 👇

1/ Sign 1: A sudden inflection in organic growth

Netflix: "Where before we were struggling to get traffic, all of sudden we couldn’t keep up." - @mbrandolph

Tinder: "Downloads started to skyrocket" – @badeen

Uber: "Word of mouth was uncontrollable" – @ryangraves

2/ Sign 2: Customers ask to pay for the product before you ask

Carta: "I've been trying to get to your sales people for weeks!!! Why won't you take my money???" – @henrysward

Github: "To our surprise, users started writing to us asking ‘Can we pay for this??’" – @mojombo

3/ Sign 3: Users flip from excited to upset

Datadog: "When we hit early product-market fit, our users switched from being excited at all the things our product could be to them to being upset about all the things it didn't do yet." – @oliveur

3b/ Segment: "The thing that flipped was, people would previously tell us they wanted a feature, but not use it. Whereas now, people were using it and they would want a second feature." – @reinpk

THREAD: A letter to the PR professionals out there:

Dear PR Professional,

Whether you are part of an agency representing a company or part of the corporate communications department of an organisation, I always find it a pleasure talking to you, provided I am not tied up.

This puzzles some people who often end up asking why I do not simply ask you to send me a briefing note via mail or text. Why do I always end up taking calls that sometimes last several minutes, even when there is very little chance of my using the information provided?

You see, I have been where you are.

I have taken briefs from clients who wanted nothing but front page coverage in every publication on earth (fortunately, websites were not that popular then).

I have gone to meetings carrying clippings of coverage of an event with happiness in my heart, only to be told about which publications and channels had not covered the event. I have been screamed at by managers, by clients, who seemed convinced I had not tried my best.

I have also had a number of interactions with mediapersons. Some were kind and understanding and heard me through. Some asked me to "dump the release, get out." But worst of all, most were indifferent, treating me as if I was a pesky mosquito who could not be got rid of.

10 ridiculously simple tips I wish I knew about building an audience when I first started:

I mostly winged it 🤫

Let me share my lessons so you don't have to:

(a thread 🧵)

1/ Switch from being a consumer to a creator

If your default is opening social media and binging on updates from others, there's a problem. The world needs to know what YOU can offer, and I believe everyone can add value. So first, switch to intentionally becoming a creator.

2/ Start very small and build "Atomic habits"

Most beginner creators people aim too far high and crash. It never works for me. Instead choose tiny habits like 2 tweets a day in the morning. Or 1 video for Youtube. Or 1 short essay each day on Substack. Optimize for consistency.

3/ Pick one social platform to create and stick with it

What comes naturally to you? Writing your thoughts, choose Twitter. Editing interesting footage and layering a voice-over? Choose Youtube. Short essays? Choose Substack. Pick one and stick with it for at last 1 month.

4/ Find your niche

Don't focus on big bold segments with hundreds of active prolific creators already fishing. Find specific audiences and move towards them.

I was a no-code maker in 2018 so that niche came naturally. Later, I expanded to the community niche. Now #buildinpublic