False Positives and Service-Market Fit | by Tim Dingman | Medium

The concept of product-market fit is familiar to most founders. It means (enough) people want what you’re making. For tech-enabled service startups, there is a related, prior concept: service-market fit. It’s easy to conflate service-market fit with product-market fit when you’re not used to seeing the distinction. People are paying you for the thing your business does! Isn’t that what product-market fit means? The difference is in the risk you’re taking, or alternatively, the hypothesis you’re testing. With product-market fit, there is significant market risk. Many startups fail to achieve product-market fit. The hypothesis fails in testing. With service-market fit, there is little market risk. Tech-enabled services generally start out as just services that use existing technology well. You’re not testing a hypothesis by offering a service that other people already offer — you know there is demand for what you’re selling. Service-market fit is a double-edged sword. The good part is th

The concept of product-market fit is familiar to most founders. It means (enough) people want what you’re making. For tech-enabled service startups, there is a related, prior concept: service-market fit. It’s easy to conflate service-market fit with product-market fit when you’re not used to seeing the distinction. People are paying you for the thing your business does! Isn’t that what product-market fit means? The difference is in the risk you’re taking, or alternatively, the hypothesis you’re testing. With product-market fit, there is significant market risk. Many startups fail to achieve pr