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Original article
Non-Obvious Signs of Early Startup Traction — And How to Spot Them
Key takeaway
- For entrepreneurs: Early-stage traction often manifests in unexpected ways, such as customer complaints or competitor emergence, which can be positive indicators of product-market fit.
- For investors: Look beyond traditional metrics to assess startup potential; qualitative signals like customer engagement and founder mood can provide valuable insights into a company's trajectory.
Summary
The article discusses non-obvious signs of early startup traction that founders might overlook. It emphasizes that while quantitative metrics are important, qualitative indicators can be equally valuable in assessing product-market fit, especially in the early stages. These signs include customer complaints, feature requests, word-of-mouth growth, and even the founder's own emotional state. The piece draws on experiences from successful startup founders to illustrate these unconventional indicators of success.
Insights
- Customer complaints can indicate engagement and care about the product
- Strangers willing to try your product is a stronger signal than friends and family
- An influx of feature requests suggests active product use and customer investment
- Seeing your product in use at customer sites provides tangible validation
- Prospects buying based on the idea alone indicates strong market demand
- Lack of criticism on platforms like Hacker News can be a positive sign
- Industry recognition, such as name-dropping your startup, signals relevance
- Smart competitors tackling the same problem validates the market opportunity
- Founders' ability to relax slightly can indicate growing confidence in the product
- Using and benefiting from your own product (dogfooding) affirms its value
- Tracking founder mood over time can reveal trends in the startup's progress