Jen Abel on Why Founders Fails to Find Product Market Fit

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Sep 12, 2023

Jen Abel, co-founder of JJELLYFISH and an expert in guiding early-stage startups, shares her honest insights on why founders often struggle to achieve product-market fit. She emphasizes the need for a visionary leader at the helm of a startup and advocates for giving founders at least two years to fully grasp their market. Jen discusses the importance of customer feedback, embracing rejection, and the shift from founder to sales manager. Her advice is crucial for any entrepreneur navigating the tumultuous waters of startup growth.

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ANECDOTE

Jen's early career

Jen Abel worked at General Assembly, a healthcare tech startup, and a YC-backed startup.
She realized founders often delegate market discovery to sales hires without clear guidance.

INSIGHT

Founder's Vision

Founders often want to delegate sales quickly, but a visionary founder is crucial for early success.
Salespeople excel at navigating feedback but founders possess unique vision.

ADVICE

Avoid Premature Scaling

Avoid premature scaling by validating ideas with evidence before scaling.
Founders should understand the problem deeply before building a product or delegating sales.

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Jen is perhaps one of my favorite follows on twitter on Linkedin. She is relentlessly honest about why startup founders fail to find product market fit and self-destruct. This is a must listen for any early stage founder. You can watch/listen to the podcast on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify.

Do you know it’s almost impossible for a startup to succeed without the founder at the tip of the spear? For an early-stage startup to move from 0-1 and avoid premature scaling, it needs to be led by a visionary. Leading a startup as the founder is a competitive advantage that you can leverage.

In this episode of The Capital Stack, we have Jen Abbel, Co-Founder and partner at JJELLYFISH. She’s deeply passionate about helping startups in the 0-1 journey. JJELLYFISH has advised 200+ B2B/enterprise startups with customer discovery, define their initial go-to-market, and supported Fortune 500 companies seeking to validate new commercial ventures and prove traction.

Listen in to learn the importance of understanding the problem better than the market and how to build the product for early-stage success. You will also learn why, as a founder, you should give yourself at least two years of runway and time to truly understand the problem and your early adopters.

What You Will Discover:

· [01:45] Jen shares her track record and how she developed a passion for early-stage sales.

· [06:23] The importance of having a visionary to help an early-stage startup from zero to one.

· [09:47] How to succeed from zero to one stage by understanding the problem better than the market and having a clear vision.

· [13:48] How Jjellyfish supports founders in validating their vision to their ideal clients at the selling stage.

· [16:34] How Jjellyfish helps founders understand the problem and when they’ve earned their right to sell.

· [18:30] The framework that allows the founder to pick up false positives and stay focused on the real pain points.

· [23:16] The importance of giving yourself at least two years of runway and time to truly understand the problem and early adopters.

· [26:25] The power of invalidating yourself and constantly learning as a founder to find a product market fit.

· [29:49] Understanding how to justify the return on investment against the value you’re offering.

· [33:58] The important pieces of founder manage sales stage and why it’s so critical.

· [38:21] Jen describes Jjellyfish’s newest product – a lightweight version of their extensive discovery program.

· [43:18] Some random questions with Jen!

Memorable Quote:

· “Having an idea and having a product without knowing the specific problem or whom you’re building it for is the number one reason first-time founders fail.”- Jen Abbel [07:03]

Connect with James:

· Website: https://www.jjellyfish.com/

· LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/earlystagesales/