Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Early Gainsight succeeded on 'persona-market fit' rather than product-market fit

Anthony Kennada · How I Built a Media Company (within Gainsight) that Created a $1B Brand · May 5, 2023 · at 6:33

Anthony Kennada, founding CMO of Gainsight, explains why focusing on serving a specific persona enabled Gainsight to grow before achieving traditional product-market fit.

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“It was certainly good for Gainsight, given that that company did not have did not have product market fit. If we're being honest, they had kind of like persona market fit, if that makes sense. There was like a persona that was, that owned the churn number and didn't have the tools or the voice to make it happen.”

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