Key takeaways
- Look for earned insight and access, not credentials alone.
- Ask questions that let founders show what they know.
- Record the evidence, so the judgement can be checked later.
Evidence of founder-market fit
- Time spent with the customer: working in the industry, selling to it or living the problem.
- A specific insight others miss, explained with examples.
- Access: relationships or channels that make early sales easier.
- Speed of learning: how the team's view changed after talking to customers.
An example
Two fictional founders build software for freight brokers. One spent six years as a broker and can name the three spreadsheets every broker keeps; the other built dispatch tools at a carrier. In an interview they explain which tasks brokers pay to remove and which they never will. That is evidence; a famous former employer alone is not.
Assessing it fairly
Founder-market fit is easy to confuse with familiarity: founders who look or sound like past winners. Judge the substance of answers and the evidence behind them. Delsivo's founder interviews, planned for the first release, assess substance and evidence and exclude accent, fluency, presentation polish, appearance and background. Analysts decide and can override any assessment with a reason.
Common confusions
- Founder-market fit versus product-market fit: the first is about the team; the second is about demand for the product.
- Pedigree is not fit. A strong school or employer says little about this market.
- Outsiders can have fit too, when they bring an insight insiders miss.