Get to Product-Market Fit Without the Usual Mistakes
First off—90% of startups fail, and most of those failures are preventable. After watching hundreds of founders repeat the same product development mistakes, I've learned that you don't need more features or faster development. You need to build the right thing for the right people at the right time.
We've Got a Couple of Things to Work Through Here
Most founders I work with are brilliant at solving problems—that's probably how you identified your startup opportunity in the first place. But being good at solving problems doesn't automatically make you good at product management, customer development, or market validation.
You're dealing with the startup product management paradox: you need to move fast to conserve runway, but you need to move carefully to avoid building the wrong thing. You need customer feedback, but early customers often want conflicting features. You need to prioritize ruthlessly, but everything feels important when you're trying to find product-market fit.
The good news? Most startup product failures follow predictable patterns, which means they're preventable if you know what to look for.
The Mistakes I See Founders Make Repeatedly
Building for Future Customers Instead of Current Ones
You have a vision of millions of users, but you have 50 actual users right now. Building for imaginary scale instead of real customer needs is the fastest way to build something nobody wants.
Confusing Customer Requests with Customer Needs
Customers are great at telling you what they want but terrible at telling you what they need. If you just build what customers ask for, you'll end up with a feature-heavy product that doesn't solve the core problem.
Optimizing for Investor Presentations Instead of Customer Value
Features that sound impressive in pitch decks often don't move the needle for actual customers. Building for demo day instead of daily use is a common but expensive mistake.
Underestimating the Importance of Product-Market Fit
You can't growth-hack your way to success without product-market fit. But finding PMF requires systematic customer development, not just building features and hoping they stick.
How I Can Help Your Startup
Figure Out What Customers Will Actually Pay For
Before you build anything else, let's figure out whether you're building the right thing for the right people. This is customer development and market validation with a product management lens.
What you get:
- Find out if enough people actually want this (and will pay for it)
- Learn how to talk to customers and use what they tell you
- Simple ways to measure if you're building the right thing
- Test your idea before you build the whole product
- Go-to-market strategy foundation
- Investor communication framework for product decisions
- 90-day execution roadmap
Perfect for: Pre-seed startups with initial product validation or seed-stage companies struggling to find consistent growth patterns.
Build Your First Product the Right Way
Comprehensive product strategy and development support for startups building their first product or making significant pivots.
What you get:
- Figure out exactly what to build and in what order
- Choose the right tech stack for your budget and timeline
- Know when to hire your first employees (and what roles)
- Set up systems that work with your actual team size
- Launch planning and success measurement
- Investor pitch preparation and board communication strategy
- Quarterly roadmap planning and prioritization frameworks
- Crisis management support for pivots or major changes
Perfect for: Seed-stage startups with funding who need to build systematic product development capabilities, or founders transitioning from services to product business models.
Get a Seasoned Product Leader (Without the Full-Time Cost)
I become your interim head of product, providing strategic leadership while you focus on fundraising, team building, and business development.
What you get:
- Weekly strategic planning sessions (4 hours/week minimum)
- Product team leadership and mentoring
- Roadmap planning and prioritization decisions
- Investor and board communication support
- Hiring strategy and interview participation for product roles
- Customer development oversight and strategy
- Crisis management and major decision support
- Transition planning when you're ready to hire full-time product leadership
Perfect for: Series A startups who need product leadership but aren't ready to hire a full-time CPO, or startups whose current product leadership isn't working out.
Emergency Help When Everything's Broken
For startups in crisis who need immediate product strategy help to save their business or satisfy investor requirements.
What you get:
- Immediate product situation assessment
- Customer development and validation sprints
- Rapid prototyping and testing cycles
- Get everyone working toward the same goal again
- Build a roadmap that actually makes sense
- Team restructuring recommendations if needed
- Investor communication and expectation management
- 90-day recovery plan
Perfect for: Startups facing investor pressure, running out of runway, or whose current product approach clearly isn't working.
What I Actually Talk About
When I speak at startup events or accelerator programs, I focus on the preventable mistakes that kill promising companies:
"How to Build Products When You Have No Money"
You don't have Google's resources, so you can't use Google's product development approach. Learn frameworks designed for small teams with limited budgets who need to find product-market fit quickly.
"The Minimum Viable Product Team"
You don't need a product manager, UX designer, and dedicated QA person to build something customers love. You just need to be smart about how your existing team works together.
"Why Your Product Roadmap Keeps Falling Apart"
Spoiler alert: it's not because you're bad at planning. It's because you're planning for a world that doesn't exist. Learn to build roadmaps that survive contact with reality.
"Customer Development That Actually Changes Product Decisions"
Talking to customers is easy. Using customer feedback to make better product decisions is hard. Learn systematic approaches to customer development that actually inform your product strategy.
Why Startups Fail (And How to Avoid It)
The data on startup failure is sobering but instructive. Understanding why startups fail helps you recognize the warning signs and take corrective action before it's too late.
They build something nobody wants or they want but won't pay for.
Founding team conflicts, wrong people in key roles, or inability to execute.
Usually a symptom of the above problems, not the root cause.
Often because they didn't differentiate or validate their competitive advantage.
Most of these failures are preventable with simple, step-by-step methods designed for small teams with limited budgets.
The Startup Reality Check
Frequently Asked Questions
"How is this different from accelerator advice?"
Accelerators provide great networking and general startup guidance, but they rarely have deep product management expertise. Most accelerator advice assumes you already know how to build products systematically.
"We have a technical co-founder. Do we need product management help?"
Technical skills and product management skills are different capabilities. Great engineers often struggle with customer development, market validation, and product strategy. Having both technical and product expertise gives you a huge advantage.
"Should we hire a product manager or work with you?"
It depends on your stage and resources. If you're pre-Series A, you probably can't afford the right full-time product manager. Fractional product leadership lets you get experienced guidance while preserving runway for growth.
"How do we know if we've found product-market fit?"
This is one of the most important questions in startup product development. PMF isn't a moment—it's a state. I'll help you identify the leading indicators and measurement frameworks that show you're moving in the right direction.
"What if we need to pivot? How do we know when?"
Pivoting is a product management decision, not just a strategic one. I'll help you identify the signals that indicate when pivoting makes sense and how to execute pivots systematically rather than desperately.
Stop Guessing, Start Building What People Want
Ready to build something people actually want and will pay for? Start with a 30-minute strategy call where we'll figure out what's broken, what's working, and what to do next. I'll give you specific recommendations whether we work together or not.