Thread by @JayKapoorNYC

I spend my evenings watching live streams about scaling challenges early-stage startups face (so that you don't have to)🤓

Last night, @annimaniac hosted an instructive live discussion defining her framework on Product-Market Fit &"core-beliefs" that I really loved

Thread 0/ 👇🏽

@annimaniac Founder mistakenly believe PMF is "bag of features" & "a user" that loves elements of that bag.

Bad news: It's way more complex.
Good news: Ann has a framework.

1⃣ Product as value proposition
2⃣ User in an ecosystem
3⃣ Pricing structure & business model

Let's pull on each 1/

@annimaniac 1⃣ Your Product is not just its features. It's the value proposition for the pain that you're solving.

It's a set of promises you're making to the user and moments of delight you're creating for the user as they experience the value prop. 2/

@annimaniac 2⃣Customer is not just a user, it's a whole ecosystem

Theres a buyer for your product, but theres also *their* customer. There's influencers important to your users. Detractors, brokers, channels, etc

Ecosystem must understand your value prop, whether they love it or hate it 3/

@annimaniac 3⃣Structure of pricing & business model has to make sense for value proposition. This also includes cust. acq. channels & payment terms

Even if not monetizing now, it's important to think about bc how you price product 'one day' may actually shift your product decisions today 4/

@annimaniac Business Model has to work with Ecosystem

Business Model has to work for the Product

Product has to work within the Ecosystem

"A lock on all 3 is what creates the magic moments of Product-Market Fit." 5/

@annimaniac One thing this misses (which Ann noted) is Team. Whether this team can deliver on 3🔑key elements.

For me, its where Founder-Market Fit's most critical to assess. How deeply does founder know ecosystem, have they explored the pricing options, can they build this product, etc 6/

@annimaniac Second part of the discussion I loved was on aligning with investors on "core beliefs" & how that affects a potential (dreaded) pivot.

Ann elucidated "There is a difference between flailing and pivoting. You can only pivot with one foot grounded firmly in your core beliefs" 7/

@annimaniac Pivoting means you learned something fundamental about your customer or product, and you've defined what things you're willing to shift/experiment on

That might be changing customer, product features, or pricing structure. But the core belief of the business is non-negotiable 8/

@annimaniac Harkens back to "What do you believe that few others do?"

When youve defined the core beliefs & principles, it frees you up to rotate everything in the business around that

If investors are ALSO aligned on this core belief, it creates more comfort when a need to pivot arises 9/

@annimaniac Founders should have honest conversation w/ themselves/investors at inflection points. "Do I still believe this? Do I still believe it's possible to build it"

If pivot comes from "earned secrets" built on "core beliefs", you're pivoting from place of strength & may find PMF 10/