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Product First - Bottom Up by David Sacks

sacks.substack.com · 1,179 words · saved by 1 readers

In the business-school case study, the startup always begins with a brilliant insight. The founders perceive a gap in the market relative to incumbents, then build a product to fill it. It’s all very logical. In reality, we know that startups are messier than that. Founders usually start with a product idea. They know users will like it but may be a bit hazy on the exact market, buyer, or business model. Those details get filled in over time. By launching the product first and learning from its adoption, founders discover the market insight, then build the organization they need to operationalize it. These thoughts occurred to me as I watched Lex Fridman’s recent podcast with Jack Dorsey about the founding of Square. It strongly resonated with my own experience at PayPal, which I’ve written about here. Here’s how Jack explained it (edited for length and clarity): If there’s one word that represents what we're trying to do at Square, it's access. We weren't expecting this at all. When w

Product First Market Discovery at Square and PayPal David Sacks Sep 14, 2020 127 2 2 Share In the business-school case study, the startup always begins with a brilliant insight. The founders perceive a gap in the market relative to incumbents, then build a product to fill it. It’s all very logical. In reality, we know that startups are messier than that. Founders usually start with a product idea. They know users will like it but may be a bit hazy on the exact market, buyer, or business model. Those details get filled in over time. By launching the product first and learning from its adoption,

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