Paths to PMF

The real behind-the-scenes breakdowns of how companies found product-market fit. Learn from what founders actually did in their earliest years — from false starts and painful pivots to the tactical steps that finally unlocked growth.

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Todd Jackson

First Round Partner Todd Jackson interviews startup founders about the most pivotal moments on their path to product-market fit. Before joining First Round, Todd helped build now-familiar products like Gmail's user interface, Facebook's Newsfeed, Twitter's timeline and Dropbox's bottom-up revenue engine.

Read his kick-off to the PMF series
Play Todd Jackson As seen on lenny's podcast

Case studies & examples from companies like:

Airtable looker vercel plaid clay webflow gong retool vanta1 verkada replit ironclad
PMF Method

Product-market fit isn't a black box.

Dive deep into the four levels of PMF in our seriously detailed essay. We share specific benchmarks for each stage, company case studies, and unprecedented access to Looker's actual metrics.

Read more Listen on Lenny's Podcast

Increase your odds of finding extreme product-market fit with PMF Method.

Join First Round's free, intensive 4-day experience for exceptional B2B founders early in building epic companies.

Apply now

Hear the real founding stories, straight from the founders

  • Play lloyd tabb Lloyd Tabb - Looker
  • Play zach perret Zach Perret - Plaid
  • Play vanta Christina Cacioppo - Vanta
  • Play guillermo rauch Guillermo Rauch - Vercel
  • Play Jack Altman - Lattice Jack Altman - Lattice
  • Play Kareem Amin - Clay Kareem Amin - Clay
  • Play Laura Behrens Wu - Shippo Laura Behrens Wu - Shippo
  • Play Amjad Masad - Replit Amjad Masad - Replit
  • Play Eilon Reshef - Gong Eilon Reshef - Gong
  • Play Filip Kaliszan - Verkada Filip Kaliszan - Verkada
  • Play Jason Boehmig - Ironclad Jason Boehmig - Ironclad

Don’t take our word for it

  • Andrew Arruda Founder, @AndrewArruda haven't seen a PMF framework this detailed. @firstround just published the first session of their new PMF method program. love the definitions, benchmarks, actual data from looker's trajectory, and tactical advice from incredible founders
  • Flo Crivello @altimor @firstround’s new guide to PMF deserves every bit of the hype it’s been receiving. I’ve read everything I could put my hands on about PMF and how to get it, and this is in a league of its own.
  • Shaun Heng @shaunhengcj Great episode between @tjack and @christinacaci on path towards PMF. Lots of interesting chats around customer discovery in the early days of a company. The hard part is building sth ppl actually want - make sure to nail that before spending all your time building it.
  • Linh Pham @at_linhpham Massive shoutout to the incredible PMF Method team at @firstround for this invaluable write-up! It's evident the dedication and passion poured into this piece, easily clocking in over 50 hours of hard work.
  • Kesava Kirupa Dinakaran @kesava_kirupa Todd is so good at helping uncover PMF stories 🙏🏻  go read this!
  • Lauren Motamedi @laurenmotamedi Love this new PMF @firstround series with @tjack -- especially because it features the great @aofstad and the story of @airtable 🚀 🔥

Rewind: See how today's breakout companies got started

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