Definition
Problem-Solution Fit
The state in which a clearly defined customer problem is matched to a proposed solution that customers recognize as addressing their real need — established through customer conversations before building. Distinct from product-market fit, which requires a working product in a paying market.
From the episode “Stop Building. Do This First.”Hear it on the podcast1 episode
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Related terms in Startups & Fundraising
Pre-MVP Concept ValidationTesting a product concept before building an MVP: a landing page, a waitlist, a single-function prototype, or direct customer interviews. The goal is to confirm the problem is real and users want to interact with it the way you imagine — before committing engineering resources. Most founders skip this and build the wrong thing at full cost. The example: ask users how they'd log in before building auth. If everyone says Google and Facebook and you build Telegram, you've wasted the sprint on a feature nobody needed.Pre-PMF StageThe phase between having an MVP and achieving product-market fit. Characterized by high uncertainty about what to build, active customer discovery, and rapid iteration. During this phase, technical excellence is explicitly not needed — what matters is the fastest path to understanding what customers will pull and pay for. The founder's four jobs at this stage: marketing, sales, customer conversations, and fundraising. Everything else is delegated.Pre-seedThe earliest outside funding round, often from angels.Priced roundAn equity financing with a set valuation, papered on standard NVCA model documents.Profit shareAn alternative to invoicing: build the MVP without a bill, then formalize revenue sharing if it works with real users.Proprietary Data MoatA defensibility strategy where a startup's unique dataset produces LLM outputs that public models cannot replicate, because public models regress to the mean of their training inputs.Reg A+A securities exemption allowing non-accredited investors to buy into a private company. SpotitEarly has one open at $7.15 per share.Reg CF (Regulation Crowdfunding)Caps at $5M in any 12-month period. Must run through a registered funding portal or broker-dealer. Mode's first raise.