A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders

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Every founder has 1 goal: find product-market fit. We interview the world's most successful startup founders on the 0 to 1 part of their journeys. We've had the founders of Reddit, Gusto, Rappi, Glean, Cohere, Huntress, ID.me and many more. We go deep with entrepreneurs & VCs to provide detailed examples you can steal.  Our goal is to understand product-market fit better than anyone on the planet. Rated one of the world's top startup podcasts.

  1. Paul Graham Said His Startup Was Worthless—2 Months Later He Hit $1M ARR. | Jon Noronha, Co-Founder of Gamma

    15 小時前

    Paul Graham Said His Startup Was Worthless—2 Months Later He Hit $1M ARR. | Jon Noronha, Co-Founder of Gamma

    Jon spent 3 years building Gamma with barely any traction—just a few hundred users after burning millions. Then ChatGPT dropped. In desperation, he pivoted to AI-powered presentations in March 2023 with one year of runway left. What happened next was insane: Paul Graham publicly mocked their launch tweet calling it worthless—then it went viral.  They went from 2,000 signups a day to 60,000. Their servers crashed for three days, but when they came back online, panicked users threw $50K at them thinking they needed to pay to make it work. Within two months of launching payments, they hit $1M ARR and became cashflow positive.  This is the raw story of how a dying startup caught the AI lightning and never looked back. Why You Should Listen: How to survive 3 years with no traction.Why 80% hype and 20% value can still build a real business The exact onboarding flow that turned 5% activation into viral growthHow negative viral engagement can still drive massive revenueThe difference between 10x better and 50% betterKeywords: Gamma, Jon Noronha, AI presentations, product market fit, pivot to AI, viral growth, Paul Graham, ChatGPT, cashflow positive, productivity startup 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:15 Why presentations haven't changed in 40 years 00:11:55 User research reveals the real problem 00:26:26 The market crashes and runway shrinks 00:34:32 ChatGPT drops and everything changes 00:43:19 Paul Graham trashes the launch tweet 00:48:59 Going viral by accident 00:51:33 60,000 signups a day breaks everything 00:55:07 Hitting $1M ARR in 2 months 00:58:47 Endurance is everything Send me a message to let me know what you think!

    1 小時
  2. He quit Google, launched Rubrik—then grew to $1B ARR & a $16B market cap. | Soham Mazumdar, Co-Founder Rubrik & Wisdom AI

    2 天前

    He quit Google, launched Rubrik—then grew to $1B ARR & a $16B market cap. | Soham Mazumdar, Co-Founder Rubrik & Wisdom AI

    Soham co-founded Rubrik by taking what he learned from building Google's data center tech to enterprises desperate for cloud migration. Two quarters later, he hit $1M ARR. And a few years later, a $16B IPO.  Soham breaks down why paid pilots beat free trials, how to sell enterprise hardware before it works, and why early customers become your biggest champions when you solve real pain.  Now building WisdomAI after watching the ChatGPT moment unfold, he shares what's different about competing in AI's gold rush versus owning an ignored category. Why You Should Listen: Why early customers  endure broken productsHow he hit $1M ARR in 2 quarters selling enterprise hardwareWhy you should always charge for pilotsCustomer feedback is the only PMF signal that mattersKeywords: Rubrik, Soham Mazumdar, enterprise sales, data backup, IPO, product market fit, B2B SaaS, cloud migration, WisdomAI, data centers 00:00:00 Intro 00:04:26 Leaving Google to start a company 00:11:00 Building the founding team 00:14:27 Landing the first customer in Australia 00:22:30 Hitting $1M ARR in two quarters 00:25:42 Go-to-market strategy and the DeLorean stunt 00:30:30 When Arvind left to start Glean 00:34:10 Starting WisdomAI after the ChatGPT moment 00:51:22 Advice for early stage founders Retry Claude can make mistakes.  Please double-check responses. Send me a message to let me know what you think!

    54 分鐘
  3. He Bootstrapped to $55M in Revenue—without ever having to hit 100% YoY growth. | Stéphan Donzé, Founder of AODocs

    8月28日

    He Bootstrapped to $55M in Revenue—without ever having to hit 100% YoY growth. | Stéphan Donzé, Founder of AODocs

    Stéphan bootstrapped AODocs to $55M in revenue and 250 employees without taking a dime of VC money—while competing directly with venture-backed competitors. Starting as a services company in 2012, he spotted the cloud migration wave early and built document management for enterprises moving to Google Workspace.  In this episode, Stéphan breaks down why doubling every two years beats hypergrowth, how to win enterprise deals with zero funding, and why touching business-critical documents means year-long sales cycles but 10-year retention. This is the anti-Silicon Valley playbook that actually works. Why You Should Listen: Why the founder must personally close every single deal in 0 to 1How doubling every 2 years (not every year) creates a more stable businessThe brutal reality of enterprise POCs: doing it for free before getting paidWhy you can't have both fast customer acquisition and high retentionHow being French/European became an advantage against US competitors Keywords AODocs, bootstrapping, Stéphan Donzé, enterprise sales, document management, SaaS, Google Workspace, cloud migration, product market fit, B2B 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:12 Bootstrapping vs VC backed 00:03:44 From services to SaaS 00:19:08 Landing the first customer  00:20:47 Why they turned down VC money 00:25:32 The 997 grind—four days on-site with customers every week 00:35:21 Why you can't have fast sales and high retention 00:40:33 Product-market fit Send me a message to let me know what you think!

    43 分鐘
  4. He Bootstrapped Wrike to $10M ARR—then exited for $2.2B. | Andrew Filev, Founder of Wrike & Zencoder

    8月25日

    He Bootstrapped Wrike to $10M ARR—then exited for $2.2B. | Andrew Filev, Founder of Wrike & Zencoder

    Andrew bootstrapped Wrike and grew it from 0 to a $2.2B exit by doing the exact opposite of what every startup book tells you. No pivots. No talking to customers before launch. No narrow niche. Just 17 years of relentless focus on one problem while everyone else was pivoting every 18 months.  In this episode, he breaks down exactly why bootstrapping saved his company (and why VC would have killed it), why he ignored customer development and just built in a bunker, and how manning the support phones himself became his secret product development weapon.  Now building Zencoder (AI coding agents), he shares why the future isn't about replacing developers but making every human "superhuman" at their job. This is mandatory listening for any founder questioning conventional startup wisdom. Why You Should Listen: Grew to $2.2B with no pivots for 17 years while competitors kept "failing fast"How he doubled revenue every year from $0 to $100M+ ARRWhy manning support phones himself was better than any customer development processWhy copycats helped Wrike grow fasterThe future of AI agentsKeywords: Wrike, Andrew Filev, bootstrapping, 2 billion exit, product market fit, SaaS, Zencoder, AI coding agents, no pivot strategy, collaboration software 00:00:00 Intro 00:03:30 Moving to Silicon Valley from Russia to build for millions 00:10:06 Going all-in after previous side projects failed 00:11:27 Why he never pivoted once in 17 years 00:18:47 Launching without talking to customers first 00:24:12 Manning support phones and discovering the real roadmap 00:29:01 When Microsoft Project, Basecamp, and Jira were the competition 00:34:31 The only job definition—double the business every year 00:54:16 Why Developers won't be replaced, and become superhuman 01:01:57 The $2.2B exit and making employees' dreams come true 01:04:36 Finding product-market fit at Zencoder vs Wrike 01:06:55 Focus on people—everything traces back to them Send me a message to let me know what you think!

    1 小時 8 分鐘
  5. Q2 2025: The new Series A Bar is $3M ARR—& only 20% of seed startups make it. | Peter Walker, Head of Insights at Carta

    8月21日

    Q2 2025: The new Series A Bar is $3M ARR—& only 20% of seed startups make it. | Peter Walker, Head of Insights at Carta

    Peter Walker from Carta drops the hard data every founder needs. Based on actual cap table data from 1000s of startups, this Q2 update reveals the brutal new reality. It takes 2+ years to go from seed to A (up from 1.6), you need 3X the revenue you used to, and if you're not AI, you're getting half the attention.  But there's good news too—teams are finally getting leaner, exits are picking back up, and the worst of the funding winter might be behind us.  If you're raising in 2025, this is your reality check. Why You Should Listen: $3M ARR is the new Series A bar—& it takes 1 in 4 founders 3.5+ years to get thereHalf as many seed deals are getting done but at 20% higher valuations—you're either in the AI club or you're outFounders own just 56% after their first priced round and only 10% by Series D—every round costs more than you thinkKeywords: Carta data, Series A requirements, startup fundraising 2025, seed to Series A timeline, ARR benchmarks, AI startup valuations, bridge rounds, founder dilution, startup team size, venture capital trends Send me a message to let me know what you think!

    57 分鐘
  6. His Video AI app hit $10M+ ARR in Months—with 0 outbound sales. | Michael Lingelbach, Founder of Hedra

    8月18日

    His Video AI app hit $10M+ ARR in Months—with 0 outbound sales. | Michael Lingelbach, Founder of Hedra

    Hedra CEO Michael Lingelbach breaks down how his generative video app went from zero to millions of users and an eight-figure run rate in months — then deliberately slowed down to rebuild a V2 that enterprises would pay for. We dig into the prosumer-to-pro upsell, why free users are a false signal, and how a creator-seeded launch can outpull ad spend.  Michael shares the GTM that signs enterprise contracts every few days with no outbound, the exact moment he killed feature churn to ship a real workflow, and what to hire (and fire) in the first 10 people. If you’re building AI or any early product, this is a must-listen blueprint on getting from hype to revenue. Why You Should Listen How Hedra hit an 8-figure run rate in months — with a prosumer → enterprise wedgeThe “free user” trap: why signups ≠ demand and how to price for painWhen to pause growth to build V2 that actually sells (workflow > tech demo)A creator-led launch playbook that drives virality without paid influencersHiring early: bring in a talent lead fast, staff for speed, survive co-founder changesKeywordsAI video, generative AI, product market fit, Hedra, Michael Lingelbach, creator tools, PLG, enterprise SaaS, go to market, startup growth 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:25 Why he built his own proprietary models 00:10:19 Target use cases faceless channels marketers podcasts 00:15:31 Early hiring lessons 00:38:00 Free vs paid 00:51:03 V2 launch and shift to enterprise  00:53:46 Hitting eight figure run rate and scaling GTM Send me a message to let me know what you think!

    1 小時 6 分鐘
  7. He grew to millions in ARR in 18 months—by fighting with his co-founders on purpose. | Ross McNairn, Co-Founder of Wordsmith AI.

    8月14日

    He grew to millions in ARR in 18 months—by fighting with his co-founders on purpose. | Ross McNairn, Co-Founder of Wordsmith AI.

    Ross went from lawyer to self-taught engineer to CTO at a 1,600-person unicorn—then quit to build Wordsmith AI.  In 18 months, he's raised $30M and grown to mid-single-digit millions in ARR by doing everything differently. He tested co-founders by starting fights. Built in Slack for 10 months before adding a web interface. Kept his team at 8 people while competitors hired dozens.  This episode breaks down his exact playbook: how to test co-founders before committing, why attacking someone's core job kills your sales cycle, and how he accidentally created the hottest seed round by ghosting every VC. Plus the reality of building a rocket ship with a newborn at home. Why You Should Listen: Why starting fights with co-founders can be a great way to test conflict.Why keeping your team at 8 people until PMF lets you move fasterThe accidental fundraising playbook that made VCs go crazyHow having a baby forces you to be 10x more productive as a founderKeywords: Wordsmith AI, Ross McNairn, AI legal tech, product market fit, co-founder selection, Series A, Index Ventures, Slack integration, startup pivots, legal AI 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:31 - From Lawyer to CTO 00:03:45 - Starting Wordsmith AI 00:06:41 - Testing Co-Founder Relationships 00:14:42 - Building the MVP 00:20:44 - First Product Iterations 00:26:39 - Finding Product Market Fit Through Slack 00:37:42 - Go-to-Market Using Webinars and Influencers 00:47:00 - Balancing Startup Life with a 10-Month-Old Baby Send me a message to let me know what you think!

    50 分鐘
  8. He thought his startup would fail—then grew to $100M ARR. | Rick Song, Co-founder of Persona

    8月11日

    He thought his startup would fail—then grew to $100M ARR. | Rick Song, Co-founder of Persona

    Rick built Persona into a $100M+ ARR unicorn, but he never thought it would work. In fact, Rick started Persona believing it would probably fail, and that mindset might be exactly why it succeeded.  In this episode, Rick reveals how a casual project with zero expectations turned into a billion-dollar business, why early-stage startups should avoid hyper-optimization, and the secrets he learned at Square about identity fraud that became his breakthrough.  If you want to challenge the typical startup narrative, this one’s a must-listen. Why You Should Listen How Rick Song took Persona from $0 to $100M ARR without believing in product-market fit.Why obsessing over optimization might be killing your startup.How to think differently about fundraising—Rick raised $2.4M without even trying.The real truth about what decisions actually matter in your early days.Keywords product market fit, startup advice, early-stage founders, fundraising, hyper-optimization, identity fraud, Persona, Rick Song, Square, founder mindset 00:00:00 Intro 00:08:07 Finding Persona’s First Customer 00:17:56 How to Quit a Successful Job for a Risky Startup 00:26:54 Early Product Strategy 00:37:40 Hiring the First Employees Without Selling the Dream 00:47:54 Fundraising Without Even Trying 00:56:55 Hyper-Optimization is Hurting Your Startup Decisions Send me a message to let me know what you think!

    1 小時
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簡介

Every founder has 1 goal: find product-market fit. We interview the world's most successful startup founders on the 0 to 1 part of their journeys. We've had the founders of Reddit, Gusto, Rappi, Glean, Cohere, Huntress, ID.me and many more. We go deep with entrepreneurs & VCs to provide detailed examples you can steal.  Our goal is to understand product-market fit better than anyone on the planet. Rated one of the world's top startup podcasts.

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