Why PMF Alone Won’t Make You a Breakout Success

Step 4: Optimize Your Business Model

If you’re struggling to make any channel work at scale, it could be that your pricing or trial model is holding you back. Consider experimenting with:

• Freemium or Trials: Lowering the barrier to entry can increase conversion rates. Zoom, for example, became a breakout success by offering free 40-minute meetings.

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Step 1: Confirm You’re Targeting the Right Customers

After validating PMF, the first critical step is ensuring you’re targeting the right customers—the ones who truly experience your product as a must-have. Too often, startups assume PMF applies broadly, but in reality, it’s usually strongest for a specific subset of users. Go deep on understanding... See more

Step 2: Set the Right Expectations

A common mistake is driving top-of-funnel growth without ensuring prospects fully understand the value proposition before they try the product. If new users come in with the wrong expectations, even a strong PMF won’t translate into high activation and retention rates.

Make sure your onboarding, website, and market... See more

Step 3: Find a Scalable, Cost-Effective Growth Channel

Even with the right target customers and messaging, you need a repeatable and scalable way to acquire them cost-effectively. This requires running lots of experiments across different channels to find what works. Test:

• Paid acquisition (Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc.)


• Organic strate

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