What truly determines whether a startup can succeed? How do you increase your chances of finding Product Market Fit?
Taught by Andy Rachleff, founder of Benchmark Capital (one of the best VC firms ever, investors in eBay, Juniper, Uber, Twitter, Snap, Instagram) and Wealthfront (a $5B+ company).
My favourite class at Stanford. Andy is a legend. Benchmark Capital is a storied VC firm, and Wealthfront is massive, so it was incredible to learn directly from him.
Core Premise: The success of a startup - or even a large company launching a new product - depends most on finding a market that is desperate for its product. Focusing on product/market fit often conflicts with the conventional view that a startup's limited resources should be spent perfecting day-to-day execution. Interestingly, almost every successful product-driven tech company "found" its product/market fit accidentally. This course tries to define the consistent (yet highly counterintuitive) process they all actually followed - and how to apply it in different situations.
While many of the lessons can be adapted, the core framework is especially relevant for software technology (both B2B and B2C) companies.
Only 25 people get to take this class every year. I was lucky enough to be one of those students!
Over two decades of teaching, Andy has gathered insights from seeing the best companies and founders, then distilled those lessons into this course.
Andy holds strong opinions and isn't shy about taking a stance. There's almost no gray area - just clarity. The class is seminar style, with a TON of assigned readings, leading to intense discussions facilitated by Andy.
One of the biggest gifts from this class is that Andy really invests in his students and stays a friend and mentor for life. I was lucky to spend some 1:1 time with him outside of class, learning how he thinks and lives.
Assigned Readings:
The Lean Startup
Crossing the Chasm
The Innovator's Dilemma
The Innovator's Solution
The Four Steps to the Epiphany
Some of Howard Marks' writings
Class notes coming very soon! But here are some of my writings from the class:
💡Developing a Product Process for Notion↗
📋Andy's Key Takeaways
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Everyone shouldn't like your idea
Appealing to everyone appeals to no one
Without change there is seldom opportunity
Authenticity is required to recognize inflections points early
The only thing that matters is finding desperate customers
Bootstrap ideas that solve your own problems
To get big you have to start small
All the value lies in the surprises
Pivot on the who and how, restart on the what
Double down on the good, don't fix the bad
Fail fast & cheap
Stealth doesn't matter
Revenue is more valuable as a signal then a source of cash
It's not first to market, but first to product/market fit
Don't pursue growth until you confirm your value hypothesis
Brand building is irrelevant for tech startups
Having more than one benefit is a negative
Market research is of little value
Each adjacent market requires its own whole product
Succeed with an application before you pursue a platform
Disruption is a business model concept, not a technology concept
Markets represent buyers who reference one another
Don't pay attention to your competition
Corporate partners impede discovering product/market fit
Disruption is relative
Don't hit the accelerator until you are successful
Don't judge decisions by their outcomes
Built to learn is preferable to built to execute
You only find the answer if you make someone uncomfortable
Formal experiments are only good for growth hypotheses
Great ideas find you not the other way around
Only sell your company if your market ain't happening or if you get a ridiculous offer