Hiring for sales or marketing before achieving product-market fit can be a mistake; founders should focus on learning these roles themselves first.

Extreme product-market fit leads to momentum where the market pulls you along, making it easier to know what to build and hire.

Product-market fit is crucial; you know you have it when growth is not your biggest problem, and when you pivot, you get another chance to succeed, increasing your odds of achieving product-market fit by taking multiple high-quality shots at it.

If you're pre-product market fit, hiring is not the solution to your problems; focus on achieving product-market fit first before considering hiring.

When diagnosing marketing needs, it's essential to analyze the entire funnel. If you have a lot of interest but struggle to convert leads, it indicates a potential issue with product-market fit rather than a need for more demand generation.

In the early stages of hiring, be cautious about adding people when you don't have product-market fit, as each new hire can add momentum in the wrong direction; once you find product-market fit, you should hire rapidly to build energy behind your direction.

To find product-market fit, you need to engage in thorough conversations with customers, asking detailed questions to uncover their actual needs and pain points, as customers will share their vision and problems if you ask the right questions, leading to valuable insights for product development.

Finding product-market fit is the single most important thing that your startup does in the first three years, yet it's often underexplored and underexplained.

If you're a strong team employing the right strategies and timeboxing effectively, you will discover product-market fit.