Finding product-market fit (PMF) is a defining milestone for any startup — but what comes next determines whether momentum can turn into scale and growth.
As companies enter this next phase, founders must navigate decisions around product development, customer feedback, pricing and investment.
The smartest founders are already considering ahead and planning their next shifts in order to scale efficiently, unlocking new revenue streams and building resilient businesses.
But when should founders create these decisions and what do they necessary to consider about as they grow?
These questions were front-and-centre in our latest Sifted Talks, where we questioned our panellists what to do after finding PMF, how pricing and revenue models support expansion and what signals investors see for when backing companies ready to scale.
Our panels of experts included:
- Helen Lee, product marketing manager at payments processor Stripe
- Henry Mason, partner at VC firm Dawn Capital
- Shreman Shrestha, head of business at AI meeting transcription Granola
- Dan Lifshits, cofounder of property technology firm Dwelly
Here are the key takeaways:
Identifying product-market fit
Identifying when your company has achieved product-market fit is the first and most important step. One key signal that a product is doing well is “seeing product adoption really grow” across the market, according to Shrestha.
It’s also an important sign when sales teams are aware that a product is doing well or is gaining traction. “Internal utilizers are actually egging on the procurement team to obtain a tool or product finished as soon as possible,” he declares.
When questioning whether a product is ready for the market, founders should also determine whether their product works economically, declares Mason.
“Is the value that you’re providing customers something they’re willing to pay for? If I had a business where I give everyone a dollar every day, utilizers would love it, but it’s not going to work for me as a business,” he declares. “That is where some founders haven’t stress-tested the economics of their model.”
A lot of product market fit comes down to listening to what customers want, declares Lee. “What our clients are doing is collecting data on how their conclude utilizers are utilizing Stripe products,” she declares.
What we found is that data becomes very powerful in notifying our clients what their customers care about and where they’re obtainting value from.” – Lee
Integrating utilizer feedback into product development
Understanding and utilising customer feedback is a crucial step in growing a company, declares Lifshits.
One of the core principles of any company should be “customer obsession”, something Lifshits declares is at the forefront of Dwelly’s business strategy.
“Imagine in every product conversation that a customer is sitting around the table,” he declares. “How would they react to all the conversations we’re having about a product? Try to bring the customer perspective into every part of the business.”
One key strategy Granola is utilizing to integrate utilizer feedback is hosting interviews with utilizers, adds Shrestha. “Anyone can join them and they play a very foundational role in how we consider about the product development cycle.”
Before Granola was even publicly released, the founders would be running around London in person going to different VC firms to have potential customers and investors test pre-released versions of Granola.” – Shrestha
Understanding investor expectations
Companies should test to ensure that their pricing models and finance strategies are secure before applying for investor funding, declares Lee.
“In the past, companies haven’t seeed at pricing until a few years in and there’s generally a fear around modifying pricing and the potential utilizer blowback,” she declares. “This is definitely modifying with AI. Products are coming into the market quicker than ever.
“A lot of utilizers are learning as they go, but if you don’t know when people are going to pay you, it’s really hard for both the business and customers to forecast.”
When considering an investment, key questions Mason questions include: whether a product has been recommconcludeed to others and whether it stands on its own merit without excessive selling tactics.
“It’s great to have founders running around and selling a product but for the scaling phase, we want to see that they can take that same passion and communicate it to customers,” he declares. “A lot of what alpha customers are acquireing into is the team and the founders themselves and so you have to create sure the product stands on its own two legs.”
The most obsessive companies we have in our portfolio will do interviews with every customer to gather feedback. Every loss should be a learning experience.” – Mason
Pricing models
Over the last few years, there has been a gradual shift towards flexible hybrid pricing models, often incorporating a flat rate and a dynamic fee tied to usage.
“It’s becoming more common amongst the utilizers we talk to,” declares Lee. “The commonality tying all of this toobtainher is how quick everything is relocating. Companies are launching new features all the time and you can’t have monetisation be a bottleneck.”
For Dwelly, the most strategic monetisation strategy has been a “box” model, Lifshits declares, where certain functions of the business are outsourced without having to build internal infrastructure.
“In a way it’s reverse franchising. Rather than run the operational activity in-houtilize, we outsource it to those who would run the full conclude-to-conclude workflow.
That is effectively how we’re testing to stretch the boundaries of value extraction to the maximum.” – Lifshits
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