🕺🏻 How MVP and PMF Kill Startups

"Build an MVP, find PMF, raise Series A, and scale!" This familiar startup mantra often leads founders to waste time and resources chasing artificial milestones. I believe there’s a simpler, better way to build products people want to buy.

Let’s Start with MVP

An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is supposed to be a basic version of your product that validates your idea without overinvesting time or resources to build the full product.

But here’s the problem: the concept still pushes founders to build something. Most MVPs I’ve seen are just worse versions of the product—glitchy iPhones with apps that don’t open, followed by the question, “Do you like it?”

When we launched Hints, we spent months polishing our "minimum product," afraid it wasn’t “viable” enough. After the launch, it took us another several more months to figure out what was wrong with the idea and begin a new iteration cycle.

What could we have done differently? While testing another version, I created a 2-minute fake demo video in Canva, spending just a few hours on it—no product, just a visual trick. That video resulted in 20 calls with prospects who believed we had a working product.

None of them bought it, but they clearly explained what was wrong with it.

Wait—shouldn’t prospect interviews uncover this before building an MVP?

In theory, yes. But in reality, people don’t fully understand what they need until they see something tangible.

Here’s what I believe the MVP definition should be:

A trick that makes your prospect believe you have a product, so you get honest feedback—or even a sale.

The rule is simple: spend 90% of your time talking to clients and selling and only 10% building.

What’s an even better MVP?

A service. Don’t build a product. Solve your client’s problem manually. This way, you’ll spend all your time talking to clients to understand their problems. Later, you can productize that service, which becomes easier when you know everything about your client’s needs. Below, I'll share a good example of a startup that did.

Let’s Talk About PMF

PMF (Product-Market Fit) happens when your real product (not an MVP) solves a problem for a specific group, they’re willing to pay for it, and you know how to reach them at scale.

Eager for success, founders often mistake early hype for PMF. I was one of these founders.

When we launched a free version of Hints on Product Hunt, we gained more than 2,000 users and media coverage. It felt like PMF. But when we introduced monetization, 99% of those users didn’t want to pay.

The second time, we started with monetization and quickly reached $3K MRR. Was that PMF? Not quite. We attracted early adopters but didn’t know how to scale—we had no controlled channels. All growth was organic, and we were back to iterating when it stopped. Each iteration took months of building another MVP.

How could we have done better?

Again, with a service. A service helps you confirm clients are ready to pay and helps you find scalable channels. Instead of wasting months building another version of MVP/product, you sell, solve clients' problems, and learn.

A Real Example

Take Pioneers, a startup I invested in. They’re disrupting recruitment with AI by automating screening, matching, interviews, and other key aspects of the hiring process.

In the beginning, they didn’t have a product. They manually provided recruitment, learning about clients along the way.

This approach allowed them to pivot their target segments and iterate in weeks instead of months. They first understood their clients’ problems and learned to solve them manually. Then, they started automating parts of the service. Gradually, they built a product. I’m certain this saved them at least a year of building and rebuilding MVPs while searching for PMF.

Of course, concepts like MVP and PMF can help founders understand the bigger picture. But too often, they lead founders in the wrong direction. Instead of building what people truly want, founders overthink and try to fit into someone else’s definitions.

Speak soon,

George Levin

January 12, 2024

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