Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures: The Product Market Fit Podcast

Material Security is an email security company that protects an organization's users and data particularly across Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Last valued at $1.1B, Material has over 100 enterprise customers, including Doordash, Lyft, and Fox.  In this episode, Sandhya Hegde and Wei Lien Dang chat with Abhishek Agrawal, CEO and co-founder of Material Security. Join us as we discuss:  00:00 Preview: Seeking validation for a B2B product 1:36 Founding Material Security 5:31 Identifying the Gap in Existing Solutions 10:00 Validating the Thesis  12:41 Product Vision and Initial MVP 19:56 Go-to-Market Strategy for the First Million in ARR 25:40 Product Vision and Impact of AI 31:50 Advice for Founders Starting Companies in 2024 Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc. Wei Lien Dang is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures and leads investments in infrastructure software, security, and developer tool.  Wei was a co-founder of Stackrox, a cloud-native security company prior to its acquisition by Red Hat. He can be reached at wei@unusual.vc Abhishek Agrawal is the co-founder and CEO of Material Security Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Kashish Gupta, co-CEO and co-founder of Hightouch, a leading customer data platform, discusses the evolution of data integration, emphasizing the shift to reverse ETL for personalized marketing. He shares Hightouch's inspiring pivot from a travel-focused company during COVID-19, detailing strategies for user trust and market adaptation. Gupta highlights the dynamics of navigating enterprise sales, especially with sensitive data, alongside insights into effective co-CEO collaboration and advice for aspiring founders to embrace authenticity and resilience.

Notion's Akshay Kothari discusses building Notion 1.0, meeting Ivan Zhao, launching AI features, and Notion's evolution. Sandhya Hegde explores GTM strategy, customer feedback, and the future of Notion AI. Insights on transitioning from LinkedIn to startup, embracing AI in product development, and the challenges of product-led sales.

Domino Data Lab was founded in 2013 and was one of the early innovators in the space known as MLOps. It delivers a unified platform for enterprises to build, deploy, and manage machine learning workloads and provides access to data, tools, compute, models across any environment. Domino enables ML and data teams to collaborate, ensure governance, and reduce costs at scale. In this episode, Wei Lien Dang chats with Chris Yang, co-founder and CTO of Domino Data. Join us as we discuss:  00:00 Introduction to Domino Data Lab 02:04 The Origin Story of Domino Data Lab 06:58 Balancing Authenticity and Customer Feedback 10:52  Open Communication and Collaboration Among Co-founders 14:24 The Importance of Engaging with Users 16:19  Building the First Feature: Enabling Compute Workloads in the Cloud 22:42 Discovering Unexpected Use Cases and Features 33:20 The Importance of Choosing a Target Market 35:44 The Evolution of MLOps and the Current AI Wave  Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc. Wei Lien Dang is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures and leads investments in infrastructure software, security, and developer tool.  Wei was a co-founder of StackRox, a cloud-native security company prior to its acquisition by Red Hat. He can be reached at wei@unusual.vc. Chris Yang is the co-founder and CTO of Domino Data.  Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Julianna Lamb, co-founder and CTO of Stytch. Stytch is a comprehensive tool for identity management. Its auth and fraud prevention capabilities improve both security and user experience. Last valued at $1.0B, the company now works with over 1000 customers. Join us as we discuss:  00:00 Preview: early product surprises for the Stytch team 01:53 Introduction to Stytch and identity management 05:15 The founding insight for Stytch 10:27 Validating the idea and Minimum Viable Product 12:27 Choosing a customer segment and MVP 14:33 Surprises and patterns in early customers 17:57 Lessons from Plaid and building a flexible solution 19:46 Approach to developer marketing 22:20 Approach to developer awareness and hiring 26:32 Starting a company in an unusual environment 30:53 Impact of AI on authentication and fraud prevention 34:25 Advice for developers starting a company Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and  Twitter  LinkedIn  Julianna Lamb is the co-founder and CTO of Stytch.  Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Andy Byrne, co-founder and CEO of Clari. Clari was started in 2012 and last valued at $2.6B. Its revenue platform has been helping enterprise sales teams create visibility and predictability within their organization for over a decade. It helps over 1,500 companies including Cisco and Databricks improve their entire revenue process. Join us as we discuss: 00:00 Preview: Gen AI’s impact on revenue ops 1:40 Origin Story and pain points 3:27 Early challenges and customer feedback 6:00 Surprises and feedback from design partners 10:01 Building for multiple stakeholders 13:16 Go-to-Market strategy 14:56 Identifying adjacent opportunities 18:00 Clari’s AI strategy 20:52 The future of sales and revenue 26:44 The evolution of CRM providers 28:34 Crowded sales tech landscape 32:59 Advice for new founders in GTM Tech Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and  Twitter  LinkedIn  Andy Byrne is the co-founder and CEO of Clari. Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/. Further reading from Unusual Ventures: Coming up with a founding insight What are design partners?

In this episode, Sandhya Hegde and Wei Lien Dang chat about everything that happened in the world of AI Startups in 2023. 2023 was very much an Act 2 for Generative AI as GPT became a household name. We had a long Act 1 during Covid ending with some incredible launches in the second half of 2022 including Stable Diffusion and of course ChatGPT. We take a closer look at what the pivotal moments have been this year and more importantly what they mean for the startups ecosystem. Join us as we discuss: 00:00 Preview: Strategy to defeat incumbent software companies 3:39 January 2023 — ChatGPT's Success and Consumer Adoption 7:16 February 2023 — Controversies and Legal Issues 12:09 March 2023 — GPT-4 Launch and Multimodal AI 16:04 April and May 2023 — Large infrastructure providers’ AI strategy 20:04 June 2023 — GPU Shortage and Infrastructure Challenges 22:41 July and August 2023 — Fine-Tuning and New Modalities 29:46 September 2023 — Governance and Safety Concerns 32:06 October 2023 — Revenue Generation and Open Source 33:18 November 2023 — OpenAI Leadership Changes 37:17 December 2023 — Google's Gemini and Future Predictions Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. Wei Lien Dang is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures and leads investments in infrastructure software, security, and developer tool. Wei was a co-founder of StackRox, a cloud-native security company prior to its acquisition by Red Hat. Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/. Further reading from Unusual Ventures: Whose responsibility is responsible AI? How do you navigate AI security in an evolving landscape? Autonomous AI agents could change the world, but what do they actually do well?

In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Shishir Mehrotra, CEO and co-founder of Coda. Coda is a collaborative workspace that brings together teams and tools to create organized workflows in docs. Started in 2014, Coda serves over 80% of the Fortune 100. Last valued at $1.4B,  Coda is used by over 25,000 teams including ones at Figma, The New York Times, Square, Doordash, and Toast.  00:00 Preview: Coming up with product insights 01:38 Shishir’s experience at YouTube 03:32 YoutTube Shorts versus Tiktok 06:03 Product-market fit is not a binary 08:04 The founding insight behind Coda 11:16 Positioning Coda against incumbent products 18:05 Coda’s alpha launch 24:36 PMF scores versus disappointment scores 29:53 Shishir’s approach to product rituals 38:05 The launch of Coda 4.0 43:50 Advice for new founders in enterprise productivity Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and  Twitter  LinkedIn  Shishir Mehrotra is the CEO and co-founder of Coda. Prior to Coda, Shishir was the Vice President of Product, Engineering, and UX at YouTube.  Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/. Further reading from Unusual Ventures: Coming up with a founding insight What are design partners? How to find product-market fit

Naveen Rao, co-founder of MosaicML and head of Generative AI at Databricks, shares insights on building AI infrastructure. Topics include the future of foundation model companies, open source approach, early adopters, feedback impact, Databricks acquisition, AI ecosystem evolution, and importance of open source in AI regulation.

Full episode transcript here: www.unusual.vc/post/sprigs-product-market-fit-journey Sprig is an AI-powered product feedback platform; it helps teams run in-product surveys and session replays with AI native analysis to help them build better products. Last valued at $330M, Sprig has hundreds of the largest and fastest growing tech companies as customers, including Notion, Figma, PayPal, Webflow, and Dropbox. In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Ryan Glasgow, the founder and CEO of Sprig.  Join us as we discuss: 01:13 Sprig’s origin story 05:26 Evolution of user feedback platforms 09:26 Building Sprig’s early team 12:37 Validating Sprig’s product hypothesis 15:37 Building relationships with early design partners 19:15 Iterating to MVP 23:19 Ryan’s approach to founder selling 29:11 Sprig’s early AI strategy 33:36 Sprig AI strategy post-ChatGPT 35:37 Ryan’s evolution as CEO Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and  Twitter/X LinkedIn Ryan Glasgow  is the founder and CEO of Sprig.  Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/. Further reading from Unusual Ventures: Defining your ideal customer profile (ICP) Working with design partners Validating your early product hypothesis