Do You Have Founder-Market Fit?

When creating something from nothing, like a startup, it’s important to think about your competitive edge. Much has been written about product-market fit, but founder-market fit is often more important in my experience. Founder-market fit is fundamentally about your competitive edge. Put simply: are you the right person to solve this problem?

I had a bad founder-market fit for my first VC-backed startup and that was one of the many reasons it failed.

Great Questions

Here are five questions to help determine if you have founder-market fit:

1. What unique insight or experience do you have that others in this market don't?

   The best founders bring distinctive perspectives that give them an edge over others tackling the same problem. This often comes from lived experience or specialized knowledge that most competitors lack.

2. If 100 people tried to solve this problem, why would you be the one to succeed?

   This forces you to articulate your specific advantages. If your answer is just "I'll work harder" or "I'm smarter," you might be in trouble. The answer should point to concrete differentiators in your background, network, or understanding.

3. What beliefs do you hold about this market that most people disagree with?

   Great opportunities often exist where your view differs from conventional wisdom.

4. What deep personal pain point or frustration led you to work on this solution?

   The best businesses often start as solutions to the founder's own frustrations. Founders solving their own problems typically have stronger intuition about what users need and maintain motivation longer.

5. Why are you the right person to build this company right now?

   This helps tie together timing, expertise, and motivation into one big-picture view.

Great Finds

The Deep Research capability of ChatGPT is extraordinary. It is phenomenal at giving me a primer or major head start on any topic or project. Learn more about it here. Unfortunately, it costs $200/month, but it’s well worth it. See an example here of some market sizing research it did for me in minutes.

Great Inspiration

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Onward!

Mike