Daniel Erickson

Engineering Director, Agent Stack, Vercel · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveengineer@techwraith ↗techwraith.com ↗

Daniel Erickson co-founded and served as CEO of Viable, an AI-powered customer feedback and product-market fit analysis platform. Prior to Viable, he served as Vice President of Engineering at Eaze, CTO at Getable, and was an early software engineer at Yammer.

14statements → 3claims → 1claims resolved → 4/5average certainty → 2.14/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

0 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted 2 not checkable as stated how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 1 assertion · 1 opinion · 8 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertion are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 2 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Daniel argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable contradicted claim

Prediction Didn’t hold up

Erickson: Product-market fit will be product teams' primary metric within five years

“In five years, PMF will be the main metric that product teams track to gauge success, much like NPS now is for support and operations teams. ViableFit will have rocketed out of the tech industry and gained a foothold in enterprise companies across all industri…”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 24:21 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

How they sound: speaking style how? →

252 words/min while actually speaking · 1.4 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Daniel Erickson: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 18 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.5/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 3,558 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Daniel Erickson is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 4/10

pushed back at the host 2/10

setup questions received 75%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 18:02“Can I be blunt? Does this really scale?” ▶ 19:35“Why do you believe that there's a massive company to be built in the kind of more PMF assessment space?” ▶ 9:26“Would you agree with me in terms of kind of actually denigrating focusing so exclusively on CACs and LTV at seed?”

What they said14 Episodes1

Everything Daniel Erickson said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion

Erickson: Seed stage is definitely too early to measure CAC and LTV

“So in my opinion, at least, seed stage is definitely too early to start measuring CAC and LTV, but they're still super important to keep in mind.”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 9:37 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

Insight

Erickson: Google and Zoom succeeded by building faster horses

“Sometimes users want a faster horse. Google and Zoom are both great examples of that.”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 16:14 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

Insight

Erickson: Discard product feedback from non-disappointed survey respondents

“You should discard the feedback that you receive from the users who would not be disappointed if they could no longer use your product. They're not really your target market or your audience, so it's best to just politely thank them for their feedback and shif…”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 16:40 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

Insight

Erickson: Early-stage founders should prioritize low dilution over high valuations

“So I would say in the early stages, at least, don't worry too much about valuation. It's a good idea to keep an eye on dilution, but it's better to raise less at a lower valuation and a lower dilution than to raise at a larger amount at a high valuation early …”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 22:15 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

Insight

Erickson: Product Roadmaps Should Balance Core Strengths with Long-Tail User Fixes

“Your roadmap should be automatically prioritized as you come up with project ideas, and it should help you strike a balance between investing in your strengths and working on the long tail of features and fixes that will help turn less enthusiastic customers i…”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 5:10 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

Disclosure

Regulatory shifts forced Eaze in and out of product-market fit

“Ease had product market fit in the previous market, medical only, but in 2018 we had to deal with both a changing market and regulations that forced us to change our delivery model. We spent the next couple of years moving in and out of product market fit, whi…”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 6:49 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

Insight

Product-market fit requires 40% of users to be very disappointed without it

“You have product market fit when at least 40% of your users say that you would be very disappointed if they could no longer use your product.”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 7:30 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

Insight

Erickson: Product-market fit indicates when seed startups should focus on unit economics

“PMF is a much better seed stage metric because by showing you how much your product is resonating with your customers, it tells you when to start focusing on CAC and LTV.”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 9:48 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

Insight

Erickson: Accurately Measuring PMF Requires Explicit Target Market Segmentation

“Without defining a target market, And marking each user as in or out of that market, you won't know your true product market fit.”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 11:07 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Erickson: Viable Fit aims to make PMF the next NPS

“We want to make PMF, the next NPS, and specifically have it focused on product success instead of the more customer service and operations teams oriented approach that NPS takes.”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 20:43 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

Insight

Erickson: Product-market fit is a dynamic metric, not a permanent state

“Product market fit is like any other metric. It can rise and fall as your product and market changes and grows. And there's, it's not this static thing that once you get it, you've got it.”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 22:04 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

Prediction Didn’t hold up

Erickson: Product-market fit will be product teams' primary metric within five years

Disclosure

Erickson: Gettable Failed to Find Product-Market Fit Over Four Years

“Gettable was a construction equipment rental marketplace that was still in its infancy. I spent the next four years there trying to find product market fit, but we never really found it.”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 3:47 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Erickson: Embedding Survey Questions in Emails Drives 40% Response Rates

“So what we do actually is we embed the first question in the email itself and give users three buttons that they can click for the three different answers. This ensures that we get up to about a 40% response rate for that first question.”

Daniel Erickson Jun 5, 2020 ▶ 12:31 20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately Segment Users Into Cohorts, Why Investors Analysing CAC's at Pre-Seed Is Not Useful & How To Determine Between Customer Feedback to Accept vs Reject with Daniel Eric

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
20VC: How To Scientifically Measure Product-Market Fit, How To Efficiently and Accurately	Jun 5, 2020	14m

Daniel Erickson

The record, in short

Their most notable contradicted claim

How they sound: speaking style how? →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Appearances (1)

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