A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders

This 1st time founder raised a $38M Series A—after taking over 2 years to launch. | Chris Ellis, Founder of Thatch

Feb 17, 2025

Chris Ellis, the first-time founder of Thatch, shares his remarkable journey of raising $38 million in Series A funding for a health benefits platform after two years of hard work. He discusses the vital importance of choosing the right co-founder and the significance of having a mission in overcoming startup challenges. Chris reveals how he pivoted from an initial failed idea to create a product that meets critical healthcare needs, emphasizing the power of listening to customer pain points and the role of external deadlines in driving focus and urgency.

55:54

Episode guests

Chris Ellis

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Choosing the right co-founder is crucial for navigating challenges and fostering innovation in the startup journey.

Deep understanding of customer pain points drives effective pivots, ensuring product offerings align with market needs and desires.

Strategic planning around external deadlines can enhance team urgency, facilitating efficient decision-making and successful product launches.

Deep dives

The Journey to Product Market Fit

The journey to product market fit often begins long before coding or acquiring customers, with selecting the right co-founder as a critical determining factor. Establishing a deep connection and shared vision with a co-founder can facilitate the development of innovative solutions in the face of industry complexities. In this instance, the founders met through mutual interests in healthcare regulations and established a working relationship that paved the way for their venture. Their combined experiences in biotech and fintech ultimately guided their approach to building a compelling product designed to improve the healthcare experience for individuals.

Intro

2min

Choosing the Right Co-Founder

15min

Navigating Healthcare Startup Challenges

6min

Navigating Health Insurance Challenges in Startups

19min

Forcing Functions for Growth

5min

Navigating the Journey to Product Market Fit and Trusting Your Instincts

4min

Navigating Skepticism and Embracing Customer Feedback

4min

This first time founder just raised a $38 million Series A. The crazy part is that for all of 2021, 2022, 2023, he had almost no revenue. He spent all that time building and pivoting. Finally he launched in 2024—and it blew up.

I saw his LinkedIn post and his revenue chart doesn't look like a hockey stick... it looks like straight a vertical line. He built a health benefits platform—it doesn't get less sexy than that. And yet, it absolutely exploded to millions in ARR in less than a year.

All because he figured out how to make something that every single company in the U.S. needs, exceptionally simple.

Here's the story.

Why you should listen:

Why choosing the right co-founder is the most important thing.
Why having a mission is crucial to make it through the ups and downs.
How to listen to and understand customer pain points.
Why pivots are not a bad thing, and can actually be the key to crazy traction.
How to use external deadlines to drive urgency and focus .

Keywords
Thatch, startup journey, co-founders, healthcare innovation, product market fit, venture capital, entrepreneurship, health benefits, business challenges, pivoting, healthcare, startups, product development, market demand, customer needs, external deadlines, product market fit, scaling, company culture, founder intuition

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Intro
(00:02:27) Finding the Right Co-Founder
(00:10:23) Why You Need to Go All In
(00:16:20) The Seed Round & Pivoting From the Original Idea of Thatch
(00:30:08) How to use external deadlines to drive focus
(00:37:55) The Growth in 2024 & The Business Model
(00:42:16) The Benefits of Forcing Functions
(00:45:58) How Many Customers are Using Thatch Today?
(00:47:50) Finding True Product Market Fit
(00:52:10) People Didn't Believe in Thatch

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