How SessionM found product-market fit: Lars Albright on customer loyalty

Early revenue can sometimes fool you into thinking that you have product-market fit. Startups begin to focus on growth without having solved the core problem their customers are playing them to address.

In this episode, we are joined by Lars Albright, a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, where he leads investments in vertical SaaS and fintech startups. Lars is a three-time founder of enterprise software companies, having sold two of his companies to Apple and Mastercard. Today, Lars joins us to talk about his last startup SessionM, a pioneer in mobile loyalty, and even today, powers the loyalty infrastructure for Fortune 1000 brands.

Join us as we discuss:

• How SessionM needed to find product-market fit with 3 different customer stakeholders
• The launch of mPlus Rewards and early traction
• Why Lars and his team decided to pivot from coalition loyalty programs to enterprise software despite the revenue traction
• The challenges of working with fortune 500 companies as a small startup and the lessons Lars took from that time
• Lars’ advice to founders who have revenue but not product-market fit  

About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services. Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness, 
and Vivun.

About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/).

Further reading:

• Customer validation: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/pmf-customer-validation
• Lars’ core fintech themes and advice for founders in today's market: https://www.unusual.vc/post/core-fintech-themes-and-advice-for-founders-in-todays-market
• Loyalty 3.0: Where consumers become owners: https://www.unusual.vc/post/loyalty-in-a-web3-world