Finding a product-market fit is the desired goal for any startup. Once you’ve achieved it, you can focus on scaling your business and put all your resources and efforts into it.

The remarkable achievements of Apple, Amazon, and Netflix lie in their extraordinary capacity to develop products and services that genuinely appeal to their customers. With its astounding sales of over 2.2 billion units globally, the iPhone has become a ubiquitous product in homes worldwide. Amazon’s online marketplace is another standout, hosting a substantial user base of 300 million active customers. Netflix has managed to gather over 200 million subscribers worldwide, with a significant share of over 73 million originating from the United States.

The stories of our interviewers are also impressive. Some reached 100% customer retention, others rocketed with resolving a large-scale problem, and others got acquisition offers at their early stages. 

All this success was possible because of hitting the right product-market fit. But no more spoilers — let’s move on to the article and discover all the details!

Often, entrepreneurs can be blinded by the creativity and innovation of their solutions. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that it meets the needs of the customers they want to reach. In such a way, they can find themselves in a situation where they have brilliant ideas nobody wants to buy. 

It may be tough to acknowledge, but your business is nothing without people who buy its products or services. Therefore, your life goal as an entrepreneur must be to resolve your customers’ needs.

We also asked for advice from someone with solid experience in the tech industry. Meet Revett Eldred, an entrepreneur who founded, ran, and sold Minerva Technology for $25M. Revett has been a successful consultant and a StartupSoft advisor for ten years. 

Here are Revett’s thoughts on product-market fit:

“I have never actually developed any steps or processes for doing this, as it has always seemed to me just a matter of common sense and listening to clients and potential clients to try and figure out where there is an opportunity to develop some kind of solution.”  

“I know there can be serious pitfalls when you are doing this; For example, it is well known that what people think they want is often not what they actually want, because what people think they want is always based on what they currently have, extrapolated into the future.”

“People thought they wanted the Ford Edsel, but it turned out they didn’t. Nobody ever asked for the iPhone but it turns out everybody wanted one.”

“I also know that another way is just to develop something that seems like a good idea and then see if people buy it. Very inefficient and not the way that venture capitalists particularly like, but sometimes very effective.” 

“Facebook is a pretty good example. There were probably several hundred similar products/services developed at the same time, but for some reason, it was Facebook that clicked. And it, of course, has spawned dozens of similar social media that nobody ever thought they needed.”

If you find a match with most of these points, you’re lucky to achieve your product-market fit. Of course, you might not get them all at once but keep collecting these achievements and getting the score in this market game.