Salesmen are an exception. It's easy to measure how much revenue they generate, and they're usually paid a percentage of it. If a salesman wants to work harder, he can just start doing it, and he will automatically get paid proportionally more.
There is one other job besides sales where big companies can hire first-rate people: in the top management jobs. And for the same reason: their performance can be measured. The top managers are held responsible for the performance of the entire company. Because an ordinary employee's performance can't usually be measured, he is not expected to do more than put in a solid effort. Whereas top management, like salespeople, have to actually come up with the numbers. The CEO of a company that tanks cannot plead that he put in a solid effort. If the company does badly, he's done badly.
When we think of the concept of “fit” in business, we often think of product-market fit. This refers to the degree to which a product satisfies the needs of a particular market. However, there is another type of fit that is just as important: founder-market fit.
A great founder can bring out the best in people.
People start to exaggerate traits and then they become like that We only remember extremes
Great risk of founders is they become certain of a myth around them and lose their mind — just as dangerous is to lose all sense of myth.
Founder-market fit is a critical ingredient in the recipe for business success. When a founder has strong founder-market fit, they are better equipped to identify and solve the problems that their target market faces. They have a deep understanding of the market’s needs and preferences, and they are better able to communicate with and relate to their customers.
In this article, we will explore the concept of founder-market fit and its importance in building a successful business.
What Is Founder-Market Fit?
Founder-market fit is the degree to which a founder’s skills, experience, and personality match the need of the market they are targeting. It is the alignment between the founder’s strengths and the market’s needs. When a founder has strong founder-market fit, they are better equipped to identify and solve the problems that their target market faces. They have a deep understanding of the market’s needs and preferences, and they are better able to communicate with and relate to their customers.
Why Is Founder-Market Fit Important?
Founder-market fit is important for several reasons.
Firstly, it enables founders to identify and solve the problems that their target market faces. When a founder has strong founder-market fit, they are better equipped to understand the market’s needs and preferences. This allows them to create products or services that are tailored to the specific needs of their target market.
Secondly, founder-market fit enables founders to communicate with and relate to their customers. When a founder has strong founder-market fit, they are better able to understand the language and communication styles of their target market. This enables them to communicate more effectively with their customers and build stronger relationships with them.
Thirdly, founder-market fit enables founders to make better decisions. When a founder has strong founder-market fit, they are better equipped to make decisions that are in line with the needs and preferences of their target market. This allows them to create products or services that are more likely to be successful in the market.
How to Achieve Founder-Market Fit
Achieving founder-market fit is not always easy, but it is essential for building a successful business. Here are some tips to help you achieve founder-market fit:
- Identify your strengths and weaknesses: It is essential to have a clear understanding of your skills, experience, and personality. This will help you identify the markets where you are most likely to succeed.
- Research your target market: It is important to have a deep understanding of the needs and preferences of your target market. This will help you tailor your products or services to their specific needs.
- Test your assumptions: It is important to test your assumptions about your target market. This can be done through market research, surveys, or interviews.
- Get feedback: It is important to get feedback from your target market. This can help you identify areas where you need to improve and areas where you excel.
- Continuously improve: It is important to continuously improve your skills and knowledge. This will help you stay up to date with the latest trends and developments in your target market.
Conclusion
Founder-market fit is a critical ingredient in the recipe for business success. When a founder has strong founder-market fit, they are better equipped to identify and solve the problems that their target market faces. They have a deep understanding of the market’s needs and preferences, and they are better able to communicate with and relate to their customers. By following the tips outlined in this article, you can achieve founder-market fit and build a successful and sustainable business.
Paul Graham - What we look for in founders
(I wrote this for Forbes, who asked me to write something about the qualities we look for in founders. In print they had to cut the last item because they didn't have room.)
1. Determination
This has turned out to be the most important quality in startup founders. We thought when we started Y Combinator that the most important quality would be intelligence. That's the myth in the Valley. And certainly you don't want founders to be stupid. But as long as you're over a certain threshold of intelligence, what matters most is determination. You're going to hit a lot of obstacles. You can't be the sort of person who gets
easily.
Bill Clerico and Rich Aberman of
are a good example. They're doing a finance startup, which means endless negotiations with big, bureaucratic companies. When you're starting a startup that depends on deals with big companies to exist, it often feels like they're trying to ignore you out of existence. But when Bill Clerico starts calling you, you may as well do what he asks, because he is not going away.
2. Flexibility
You do not however want the sort of determination implied by phrases like "don't give up on your dreams." The world of startups is so unpredictable that you need to be able to modify your dreams on the fly. The best metaphor I've found for the combination of determination and flexibility you need is a
. He's determined to get downfield, but at any given moment he may need to go sideways or even backwards to get there.
The current record holder for flexibility may be Daniel Gross of
. He applied to YC with some bad ecommerce idea. We told him we'd fund him if he did something else. He thought for a second, and said ok. He then went through two more ideas before settling on Greplin. He'd only been working on it for a couple days when he presented to investors at Demo Day, but he got a lot of interest. He always seems to land on his feet.
3. Imagination
Intelligence does matter a lot of course. It seems like the type that matters most is imagination. It's not so important to be able to solve predefined problems quickly as to be able to come up with surprising new ideas. In the startup world, most good ideas
initially. If they were obviously good, someone would already be doing them. So you need the kind of intelligence that produces ideas with just the right level of craziness.
is that kind of idea. In fact, when we funded Airbnb, we thought it was too crazy. We couldn't believe large numbers of people would want to stay in other people's places. We funded them because we liked the founders so much. As soon as we heard they'd been supporting themselves by selling Obama and McCain branded breakfast cereal, they were in. And it turned out the idea was on the right side of crazy after all.
4. Naughtiness
Though the most successful founders are usually good people, they tend to have a piratical gleam in their eye. They're not Goody Two-Shoes type good. Morally, they care about getting the big questions right, but not about observing proprieties. That's why I'd use the word naughty rather than evil. They delight in
, but not rules that matter. This quality may be redundant though; it may be implied by imagination.
Sam Altman of
is one of the most successful alumni, so we asked him what question we could put on the Y Combinator application that would help us discover more people like him. He said to ask about a time when they'd hacked something to their advantage—hacked in the sense of beating the system, not breaking into computers. It has become one of the questions we pay most attention to when judging applications.
5. Friendship
Empirically it seems to be hard to start a startup with just
. Most of the big successes have two or three. And the relationship between the founders has to be strong. They must genuinely like one another, and work well together. Startups do to the relationship between the founders what a dog does to a sock: if it can be pulled apart, it will be.
Emmett Shear and Justin Kan of
are a good example of close friends who work well together. They've known each other since second grade. They can practically read one another's minds. I'm sure they argue, like all founders, but I have never once sensed any unresolved tension between them.