A: Work for a startup for a few years and learn.
Lots of startups get stuck
before they get to Product-Market-Fit.
What would be the reasons?
Here are some, I see on a daily basis. They are related to issues with founders or market (in no particular order):
A: Work for a startup for a few years and learn.
A: Idea validation failure
A: If you are deep and know you are at the same league as in Steve Jobs, this makes sense
A: Spend month(s) on the problem and not on the solution.
A: Cocreate the product with a set of dedicated users or customers.
A: Co-create the product with friendly customers. At least 5 in enterprise and a group of 100+ in the consumer category.
A: Understand market sizing/TAM. If I have to guess, more than 50% fail here.
A: Understanding how angels and VCs think of categories and investment. U can always do frustrated tweets saying "VCs don't get it"...
A: Very common mistake. Spend 24 hours on Google and you will find every competitor. Benchmark them before you jump on your product.
A: Most of the founding team come together based on friendship rather than competency. In addition to friendship, there should be a massive respect for competency between each other.
More from Startups
.@zapier built a $140M ARR business on $1.4M in VC that has become the logic layer of the no-code industry.
But it has the potential to be something even bigger: the Netflix of productivity.
Our report and a thread 👉
We believe @seqouia and @steadfast got a good deal buying into Zapier at $5B.
We value Zapier at $7B based on:
- 30-50% YoY growth over the next five years
- Zapier’s monopoly status in the solopreneur/SMB market
- 30-40% YoY growth of no-code TAM
No-code is huge and growing, but as @edavidpeterson has written, no-code is about more than tools: it’s about a philosophy that emphasizes interoperability and customizing your software to your needs.
https://t.co/UJY6BRtXwl
.@zapier enabled interoperability by building a solution to one of the intractable problems in SaaS: APIs that don’t talk to each other.
The product took off and hit $100M ARR in just 9 years, comparable to companies that have raised 100x as much money.
https://t.co/0Thk42eRpJ
Zapier was riding an explosion in APIs that started the same year they were founded—2011.
Suddenly, every SaaS business wanted to offer its users extensibility, but not spend time figuring out what integrations to build or building them.
That’s where Zapier came in handy.
But it has the potential to be something even bigger: the Netflix of productivity.
Our report and a thread 👉
We believe @seqouia and @steadfast got a good deal buying into Zapier at $5B.
We value Zapier at $7B based on:
- 30-50% YoY growth over the next five years
- Zapier’s monopoly status in the solopreneur/SMB market
- 30-40% YoY growth of no-code TAM
No-code is huge and growing, but as @edavidpeterson has written, no-code is about more than tools: it’s about a philosophy that emphasizes interoperability and customizing your software to your needs.
https://t.co/UJY6BRtXwl

Trying this on for size\u2026
— David Peterson (@edavidpeterson) January 14, 2021
\u201cNo code\u201d isn\u2019t a coherent category. It\u2019s a design philosophy.
But tools built with this philosophy in mind will be the biggest winners of the next decade.
Let me explain what I mean by way of analogy.
.@zapier enabled interoperability by building a solution to one of the intractable problems in SaaS: APIs that don’t talk to each other.
The product took off and hit $100M ARR in just 9 years, comparable to companies that have raised 100x as much money.
https://t.co/0Thk42eRpJ

Ever notice that Zapier is doing $100m+ and has no direct competition? Found their niche and crushed it \U0001f44c
— Tyler Tringas (@tylertringas) November 7, 2019
Zapier was riding an explosion in APIs that started the same year they were founded—2011.
Suddenly, every SaaS business wanted to offer its users extensibility, but not spend time figuring out what integrations to build or building them.
That’s where Zapier came in handy.

I shipped all these apps in 2020. Most of them generated $0.
🎬 https://t.co/JAhXqsuu6h $0
🌍 https://t.co/BrNUAhfiIT $0
💡 https://t.co/ZWcLfOH4aI $0
🐞 https://t.co/aghOxYEcPI $1.99
👍 https://t.co/2JhJLe27pW $3,025 in 10 days.
But that's ok, just keep shipping! My stories👇
🎬 https://t.co/wuiBp1XsYD is the first thing I created. It's a community for indie makers. The different thing is we post updates in videos. I created it for fun as I think the world doesn't need one more text-based forum, so I make a video one. No monetization plan so far.
🌍 https://t.co/fiwjgCWho5 is a social app. The idea is from Linktree, an app to share your social links. I thought it would be cool to add more visuals to it, and meanwhile we can explore others around. I also have no monetization plan for it. Make it for fun too.
💡 https://t.co/fZfL45uvVX is a platform to connect influencers with their fans. People says it's like @superpeer. But the only difference is it's all sync. Influencers don't need to commit their time to fixed slot. Fans pay to ask questions, influencers can answer at anytime.
Continuing Influenswer... I think the product has its potential. But for now maybe I didn't find the right niche to serve. Will re-evaluate it in future.
🎬 https://t.co/JAhXqsuu6h $0
🌍 https://t.co/BrNUAhfiIT $0
💡 https://t.co/ZWcLfOH4aI $0
🐞 https://t.co/aghOxYEcPI $1.99
👍 https://t.co/2JhJLe27pW $3,025 in 10 days.
But that's ok, just keep shipping! My stories👇
🎬 https://t.co/wuiBp1XsYD is the first thing I created. It's a community for indie makers. The different thing is we post updates in videos. I created it for fun as I think the world doesn't need one more text-based forum, so I make a video one. No monetization plan so far.
🌍 https://t.co/fiwjgCWho5 is a social app. The idea is from Linktree, an app to share your social links. I thought it would be cool to add more visuals to it, and meanwhile we can explore others around. I also have no monetization plan for it. Make it for fun too.
💡 https://t.co/fZfL45uvVX is a platform to connect influencers with their fans. People says it's like @superpeer. But the only difference is it's all sync. Influencers don't need to commit their time to fixed slot. Fans pay to ask questions, influencers can answer at anytime.
Continuing Influenswer... I think the product has its potential. But for now maybe I didn't find the right niche to serve. Will re-evaluate it in future.