Are You Ready to Announce Now?

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We have no data. Literally no way to know if this will all work out and you have to write this product brief in the live on a website with literally no understanding of whether this will even be possible, whether you could do it in the end or not. We landed at the smartest credit card ever made. These were very bold statements. So it could be like a little bit hyper-bold, but we said, we're going to own it. We're going to design the perfect product. And we'll just see if it resonates with individuals or not. It had to be an incredibly amazing landing page where you go there for the first time. You either hate it or you

Todd Jackson is back on the mic to guest host another product-market fit focused episode this week. He chats with Deepak Rao, co-founder and CEO of X1, a consumer fintech startup that’s building a credit card for a new generation.

Just last week, X1 announced a $15 million funding round. But we’re here to rewind the clock and unpack how the startup got to this point. As you’ll hear in today’s conversation, the path required a dramatic pivot. Here’s a preview of what Deepak shares:

The emotional journey of how the pandemic forced them to abandon the initial idea for a personal loan product.
How the team validated demand for the new idea by focusing on the launch announcement and getting all of the branding exactly right — before building anything.
The launch strategy that crashed X1’s website and built up a 600K long waitlist. .
Why finding product-market fit is different for consumer companies, plus advice on fundraising in tough times.

Whether you’re in the early innings of starting a company, going through a tough pivot yourself, or planning out your product’s launch there are tons of helpful tactics here.

You can follow Deepak on Twitter at @drao1. You can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @firstround and @tjack.