A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders
00:44:53 · Pablo Srugo, Astro Teller
[00:44:53] S2: So does that come down to finding the biggest part of the problem or something? I'm trying to maybe get more granularity on that. Is that how you think about it? [00:45:02] S0: Sometimes it's the biggest part of the problem. Sometimes it's like, if you want to change a system fundamentally, then finding how to sell to the incumbents is very complicated. Because if you sell to the incumbents and they don't want the system to change. That's an example where you end up potentially depending on the incumbents, building a ladder to the moon. Because they will give you money. You can make a medium sized business. You can make a billion dollars a year selling to incumbents. But you're probably not going to change some huge industry if the incumbents, who are your main customers, don't want the industry to change. That's the kind of tension that we feel like we're holding here a lot. It's like, what would really change the industry? And then work backwards from there. Who are we going to have to work with first? Sometimes it could be the incumbents, but then we need to start with, we're going to blow up your industry. Are you interested in doing that with us? If not, please do not sign up with us. You'll just be angry at us later and we say that to people, and many of them tell us to pound sand. But that's a little bit like the monkey also. If that's where the problem is, let's be honest about it.
00:46:08 · Pablo Srugo, Astro Teller
[00:46:08] S2: Perfect, well, listen, I think that's a perfect place to stop. I'll ask maybe just one more question. What would be a top piece of advice that you would have for early stage founders that are in their pre Product Market Fit? Maybe they have an idea, maybe they don't yet. Maybe they've got signals of something kind of working. What would you say to them, having built and worked with so many ideas over the last decade plus? [00:46:29] S0: I'm going to give you a very non traditional answer, but I deeply believe it. The hardest and most important thing for anyone to learn is, some people would call it managing their own psychology. Some people would call it wisdom, personal growth, but the extent to which people don't really understand themselves and their relationship to the world. Where there are inner forces that are driving them in pretty complex ways. Causes them to be so imperfect as managers and leaders. I guarantee you, for most of your listeners, doing that hard personal inner work will pay more dividends over the next ten years. Maybe your company will die in the meantime, I don't know. But over the next ten years, that's the thing that will supercharge them the most. Not hiring a better business development person. [00:47:22] S2: Perfect, Astro, thanks so much for spending the time. It's been great. [00:47:25] S0: Thank you.
00:47:25 · Astro Teller, Pablo Srugo
[00:47:25] S0: Thank you. [00:47:26] S2: So picture this. It's months from now, years from now and one of your founder friends. A really close founder friend of yours, guess what? Their startup went bankrupt and it turns out, if you had just shared the Product Market Fit Show with them. They would have learned everything they needed to find Product Market Fit and to create a huge success. But instead, their startup has completely failed. You have blood on your hands. Don't let that happen. You don't want to live like that. It is terrible. So do what you need to do. Tell them about the show. Send it to them. Put it on WhatsApp. Put it on Slack. Put it where you need to put it. Just make sure they know about it and they check it out.