The Real Product Market Fit by Michael Seibel

Michael Seibel is a partner and the CEO of YC. He cofounded Justin.tv, which was in the winter 2007 batch and Socialcam, which was in the winter 2012 batch. / mwseibel
In this video Michael comments on his essay The Real Product Market Fit blog.ycombinator.com/the-real...
The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon - / craigcannon
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Topics
00:00 - The Real Product Market Fit
1:00 - Why do many founders think they have product market fit when they don’t?
5:45 - Building a successful company is not a single variable problem
7:30 - Socialcam didn’t hit product market fit
8:40 - Justin.tv had $1M in profit before reaching product market fit
12:30 - Some companies take a long time

[@radarscreen391]

One of the most honest conversations by a successful entrepreneur. I paused the video and started calling our users, and the responses were eye opening.

[@SuccessForeverAstrology]

What did you learn ?

[@aqua_pi]

The real product market fit was the friends we made along the way

[@jzk2020]

Did you even watch the video. Your family or friends or pets do not a product market fit make.

[@homesickhelmet2945]

😂😂

[@appleid3223]

Me to investors after running the startup to the ground😂😂

[@fgboii4687]

@@jzk2020u funny 😅

[@Death4K]

@@jzk2020he’s joking chill

[@collegesynewave]

First time hearing Michael Seibel speak refreshing honesty and logic,thanks :)

[@shikki111]

First time watching a Y combinator, after i saw a stanford lecture with amazing experienced people, i didn't know Michael Seibel was one of the most succesful people silicon valley.

[@Phantom-nb5li]

"Every year you don't die, your chances of being successful go up." - nice !

[@iraklispro]

Hi Craig the new format is awesome! Congratulations. Keep it going! It would be great if you can have more talks about product market fit. I know there are some talks about this at start up school but the majority of us haven't achieved product market fit yet and it would be great to hear more related perspectives/stories. This talk was very valuable. Thank you!

[@ycombinator]

Thanks for watching! -Craig

[@lithiumUNCHARGED]

Wow pleasantly surprised by the guest and discussion. This is another step towards human progress

[@CarloL525]

Thanks for the invaluable lessons

[@TechGalaxy292]

Content is gold. Thanks for the series guys!

[@William_Clinton_Muguai]

The guy is brutally honest a skill that many aspiring entrepreneurs lack. Every entrepreneur must be absolutely truthful to themselves coz the greatest person 2 fool is oneself.

[@AlexanderLouizosLouizos]

Love you Michael for being brutally honest. You are the best!!!!

[@William_Clinton_Muguai]

His honesty is what we all need.

[@andu896]

Seems like Twitch was missing the business model canvas planning to happen quicker and first. Glad it eventually did happen!

[@yossimolcho841]

Thanks. Great talk.

[@antoniomendes9366]

thanks for these videos Craig! the right kind of content that keeps founders grounded and focused on building something long term.
"founders think they've found PMF because it is intellectually convenient!" so much truth explained with just a few words. thanks again :)

[@ycombinator]

Thanks for checking them out! -Craig

[@yellowsnh]

Brilliant. As always.

[@jecabreradc]

Thank you. Great information.

[@prostomarketing]

I am Watching anв nearly crying. Wish I knew it four years ago. Happy I encountered it now and can do my homework and rethink my failures

[@troybuckholdt]

I love these so much

[@h2energynow]

Incredible amount of very valuable information, Thanks Sonya Davidson, CEO H2 Energy Now

[@jasoncheung8407]

How satisfied users are with your product is what determines whether you ever get to PMF.
Happy users => word of mouth => more users => happy users => word of mouth, and so on.
That's how you reach PMF.

[@brahmabull4004]

Not if you can't monetize said product efficiently

[@zelda5561]

Than it was a bad product to begin with. You should know if your product is monetizable from the start. @@brahmabull4004

[@isitfunnytoyouu]

Hello my dear friend! thank you for the cool video! I'll wait for new videos

[@fegelxx8191]

Great succinct video

[@mangarific1]

New drinking game: Take a shot every time Michael says like

[@RifatMahmudrous]

So, growth-repeatable, retention, profitablity

[@sachinarora1156]

DO Y combinator provides living expenses for foreign founders? I am not sure a lot of them can endure travel expenses and living expenses in early stages of start up?

[@armada70]

They don't provide for living expenses.

[@Death4K]

We talk about profitability but most of these companies are blitz scaling as well as ballooning even at its current stages (DoorDash Airbnb etc)

[@aemericenglish2417]

1. Build first

[@ghenrykhouse]

It is demotivating to hear that the 1mln profit/year and 30mln monthly active users was not a product market fit

[@olemew]

Those facts should be motivating enough.

[@MosbarRemix]

A bloated boat floats longer until it sinks

[@bien196]

Can someone put the exact Time Stamp where they define PMF? They are talking alot about what it's not and they say what it's like when you have pmf but there is never a clear definition...

[@Alvin_Vivian]

So how do you define product-market fit specifically? If you have a $1m in profit, and you're not even at product-market fit...

[@nicocastro6164]

I think they said it best when they mentioned that you have to create a repeatable/scalable process in which to grow users profitably. So you could have $1m in profit on year 1, but your retention metrics could be horrible, so that number goes significantly lower in year 2. Or maybe your distribution channel is inefficient so you can't scale up profitably. These are just some factors to consider before you can say you have achieved product market fit.

[@nightlifeking]

So... What is product market fit???

[@xingermit]

like they said, your product is selling like hotcakes, and you couldn't keep up with the growth.

[@marilyncrawford2362]

How do you do a product market fit when it is an mini ecommerce site? When you have serveral products. Founder/ Estavent anti violence anti terrorism project.

[@trucututrucutu6071]

You cannot control product market/fit because is in the hands of customers not you.

[@radarscreen391]

if someone was to sell product market fit to entrepreneurs he would be very rich

[@davidfleischer4407]

I think it shouldn’t be so hard to come up with a non-experiential definition of product-market fit!

[@arvindeashwar650]

Does product market fit imply that you have distribution solved ?

[@IAn0nI]

Sustainable growth

[@MansaKimani]

👌🏾

[@how0will0this0end]

I just hit product market fit last night when a customer gave me the idea for a key ingredient missing from my offering. Nothin like this has ever been offered before and its a huge market. so seeya biatches

[@c.s1393]

How's it going

[@carlosbraga9381]

Still waiting

[@Tassadar606]

you cant pretend your way out of profit market fit, but you can pretend your way into a good acquisition, or a good exit, and or a good company that does not become a start up/eat the world kind of company, which is probably why there is so much pretending.

[@xSayllusx]

Michael is so knowledgeable and more articulate than Sam

[@dy2cakc1]

Self-imputed product market fit is a fool's errand.

[@boston1977boston]

The interviewer is a goober

[@JohnnyConcent]

YUGE problem, hm

[@benholmquist3589]

1. "How could you think that building a company is a single variable problem?" A lot of yc content focuses on the importance of a single KPI. As long as his KPI goes up you'll be successful. So, I do think this little paradoxical
2. Also, saying product market fit is a clearly defined thing is not really accurate imo. Even Mark's definition is pretty hazy. That said, it's clear that most founders think they are there when they are very different than what marks and your definition is, so overall I do think people are way off base but it's certainly not black and white