Andy Rachleff on coining the term product-market fit

In today's episode, we hear from Andy Rachleff, who coined the term “product-market fit” which served as the inspiration for this podcast.

Andy Rachleff is a legendary Venture Capitalist who originally coined the term "product-market fit." Andy has had an incredibly accomplished career in the tech industry, co-founding Benchmark Capital in 1995 and Wealthfront in 2008. Andy has mentored and guided hundreds of founders and investors, and in this episode talks about why understanding product-market fit is the only thing that matters and all the pitfalls founders face along the way.

Join us as we discuss:

• How Andy got into venture capital and ended up starting Benchmark
• Who and what inspired Andy to coin the term product-market fit
• The core concepts behind product-market fit and why it’s the only things that matters for founders and investors
• What truly defines an MVP and how it should test the desperation hypothesis

About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services. Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness, 
and Vivun.

About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/).

Further reading:

• Building conviction in a startup: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/building-conviction
• Customer validation: going from idea to sellable product: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/pmf-customer-validation
• What are design partners, and how do you acquire the right ones? https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/picking-design-partners
• 12 tips to improve your MVP with early adopters: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/shape-your-mvp-with-design-partners