Ask HN: How did you find PMF? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How did you find PMF?

3 pointsconnollystr3 comments

Nearly all successful business stories boil down to two aspects

1. Build what people want. So much so they are willing to pay. Talking to potential customers matters here. 2. Minimize the cost for solution building, both time and money.

I get it.

My problem is in the details. I would ask questions on sub-reddit, hacker news, x, etc if someone has specific problems, with some solution in mine. I get very little traction.

I would launch MVPs, reach out to the people who I think may find it interesting, both online and offline. Very little traction, and both growth and retention converge to zero.

Is there the right playbook? How do you execute? Things are quite daunting and disappointing. Never felt so useless.

I often think about it. My very very limited experience and exposure tells me people as a group behave insanely. They follow other insane people ravishingly but if you tell them as a group some common sense solution then they will shoot it down or are simply unbothered by it. So maybe just do your thing i.e. throw lot of darts and see what sticks or according to me figure out less sane people who are in attractive popularising positions and persuade them to popularize your product. A famous character artist in India said that most actors in India are heavily insane because the drive that's needed to succeed in the film buisness where the odds are always stacked against you, there only the less sane only have the ample drive to keep trying incessantly. So do search for such kind of influential ppl and you may hit jackpot.

Sell a solution before you have a product.

Make products you need and dogfood heavily. If you need something that doesn’t exist, other people probably do too.

Also be aware that while talking to customers is important, they’re often not able to see outside their own bubble. As Henry Ford said, “if I asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”

Reply on news.ycombinator.com