Product Strategy

The intensity of the pull is a factor of the fit (how good your product is at solving the user’s problem) AND initial market size (is it niche or broad) .

To pick a wedge, find a large market and then:

1. Pick a very narrow (and very painful) problem


2. Pick a very specific segment of people to solve that problem for

“Wedge selection should be very intentional. Don’t just build for the first customer persona you think of or the closest city to where you live. Build for the group that has the most acute pain point, or the highest willingness to pay, or the fastest sales cycles. The more carefully you pick your wedge, the easier it will be to succeed and to expan... See more

“When I say it needs to have a good wedge, I’m looking for an entry point that provides some sort of power to the startup.”

—Ann Miura-Ko, GP at Floodgate

A wedge seems most essential when you’re going after a market that is (1) entrenched or (2) crowded. When it’s hard to break in head-on.

My number one predictor of whether or not a company will find product-market fit: High shipping cadence.

The more entrenched and competitive the market, the more valuable a wedge will be.

A wedge is simply a strategy to win a large market by initially capturing (1) a tiny part of a larger market or (2) a large part of a small adjacent market.

“The wedge metaphor to me is most useful in making sure you’re not a blunt instrument trying to chop into a market by being everything for everyone, but instead the sharp blade with extraordinary focus on a specific persona/use case to start.”