The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 14 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
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.”
Erickson: Google and Zoom succeeded by building faster horses
“Sometimes users want a faster horse. Google and Zoom are both great examples of that.”
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…”
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 …”
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…”
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…”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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…”
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.”
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.”