VC10X - How to find Product Market Fit? - Pablo Srugo, Partner, Mistral
Jun 11, 2024
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Pablo Srugo, Partner at Mistral and former GymTrack COO, shares insights on finding true Product Market Fit, staying lean, and navigating profitability. Topics include steps to PMF, near-millionaire to bankruptcy journey, and importance of authentic growth. Hosted by Prashant Choubey, the episode offers valuable advice for startups.
Focus on achieving true product-market fit before scaling team size.
Understand the financial unpredictability in startups for success planning.
Implement crucial steps like problem-solving, focus, market presence, value, and adaptability for product-market fit achievement.
Deep dives
Key Point 1: Importance of Keeping Team Small Until Product-Market Fit
Founders are advised to keep their team small until they achieve true product-market fit, emphasizing the value of staying lean and not growing the team prematurely. Examples like the struggles faced by Pablo Shugo highlight the significance of focusing on product-market fit before scaling the team.
Key Point 2: Lessons from Near-Millionaire to Bankruptcy Story
The narrative shared by Pablo Shugo about almost becoming a millionaire by 25 but going bankrupt underlines the unpredictable nature of startups. The story emphasizes the importance of understanding the variables impacting financial success in the startup ecosystem.
Key Point 3: Key Principles for Achieving Product-Market Fit
Insights shared by Pablo Shugo highlight the crucial steps to achieve product-market fit: finding real problems, maintaining intense focus, being in the market to win it, emphasizing value over growth, and being willing to pivot rapidly if needed.
Key Point 4: Navigating Increased Focus on Profitability
Founders are advised to navigate the current focus on profitability and sustainability. The discussion emphasizes the risks associated with chasing growth at all costs and highlights the importance of maintaining lean operations and considering profitability as a core factor.
Key Point 5: Unicorn Obsession and Alternative Success Metrics
The conversation challenges the obsession with becoming a unicorn as the sole measure of success for startups. Pablo Shugo advocates for founders to consider alternative success metrics, such as profitability and sustainable growth, rather than solely focusing on achieving unicorn status.
Pablo Srugo is a Partner at Mistral, investing in Seed stage startups. Prior to Mistral, Pablo was the co-founder and COO of Gymtrack, a VC-backed startup in the FitTech space. Pablo also hosts The Product Market Fit Show where he discusses how popular companies found Product Market Fit.
In this episode, we talk about -
- How Pablo almost became a millionaire by 25, but instead went bankrupt?
- How he helps companies find real Product Market Fit and not fake growth numbers?
- What are the 5 steps to Product Market Fit?
- Importance of staying lean until Product Market Fit is achieved
- How should startups navigate the increased focus on profitability?
& lots more
Links:
⭐ Sponsored by Podcast10x - Podcasting agency for VCs - https://www.podcast10x.com/
Mistral - https://mistral.vc/
Pablo Srugo on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablosrugo
A Product Market Fit Show - https://pmfshow.buzzsprout.com/
🎙️ Hosted by Prashant Choubey
Follow Prashant on X - https://x.com/ChoubeySahab
Follow Prashant on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/choubeysahab
Email - prashantchoubey3@gmail.com
Subscribe to VC10X on Youtube - https://youtube.com/@vc10x
VC10X is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & YouTube.
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