Founders: How did you navigate product-market fit for your travel startup?

Hey Travel Massive Community,

My name is Martin, and I'm navigating the exciting yet challenging journey of being a first-time cofounder and product leader. We're currently in the process of refining the second iteration of our MVP. As we prepare for our beta launch, our primary goal is to nail down product-market fit.

From what I've gathered, product-market fit seems to encompass two major areas: our vision (our definition of success and the unique value we aim to deliver to our users) as founders and the empirical data or benchmarks set by others who've successfully launched in similar markets.

Here's where I like to gain more perspective from the Travel Massive Community:

1. Is this dual-sided approach to product-market fit consistent with your experiences?
2. For those who've journeyed through the startup landscape, in the travel space, how did you define and achieve product-market fit for your projects?
3. What metrics, feedback strategies, or milestones have you found critical in signaling product-market fit, especially within the travel industry?

I'm eager for any insights or stories you're willing to share, especially from those who, like me, are navigating the startup journey in travel for the first time. Overcoming challenges or unexpected lessons can offer invaluable guidance for us new to this path.

Looking forward to your shared wisdom and tips on navigating towards product-market fit in this dynamic sector.

Thank you!
Martin

Very interesting topic.

We haven't found the perfect market fit for our product yet, but we're working hard to get there. Since we started, we've learned a lot. I think these points are crucial for reaching PMF:

Begin by focusing on the people who really need your solution and clearly represent the problem you're solving. You can broaden your audience later, but your first users should be those who can offer meaningful feedback on your product.

I also find it essential to keep an eye on three key metrics:

Retention - how many users keep coming back to your product

Re-Activation - Making sure to re-engage users who don't use your product regularly, in a personalised way rather than just sending lots of notifications

Renewals - Seeing how many users continue to use the most important features or paid services of your app, this can affect your Net Promoter Score

These are our learnings so far, but I'm open to hearing different opinions or insights.

Product-market fit is totally independent from your own vision on how the product should be and from other companies' data. It is almost never achieved at the beta launch stage and can take months or even years of talking to users, receiving feedback and adjusting your product accordingly.

While it can probably be translated into some kind of metrics, you will just feel it once you reach it. It is basically when you built something people really want and this usually translates into rapid growth and adoption as well as strong retention metrics. It is characterized by a pull from the market (people demand your product) as opposed to your team having to painfully push your product into the market. Another way to test it is asking your user base the following question:

"If our product were to disappear tomorrow, how upset would you be?"

If the majority of your users/customers answer "Very upset", you are probably onto something. Otherwise, back to building something they really want. Obviously, they have to be willing to pay for your product, otherwise you do not have a business at all.

A good article on this here: mixpanel.com/blog/what-14-startup-investors-and-advisors-taught-us-about-chasing-and-finding-product-market-fit/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIn%20the%20early%20stages%2C%20pre,start%20to%20demand%20your%20product.

Thanks Martin for this topic.
I work within short term rentals, within the acquisition dpt, and for us the experience of the owners is becoming essential day by day, kind custoner care supposed to be much important than I thought in the past.
all the best!

A couple of good comments here already. It's not a clear cut answer, but I like the material Ycombinator is putting out regarding this. Worth a watch: www.ycombinator.com/library/5z-the-real-product-market-fit

Wow, thank you all for the incredible insights and perspectives shared here. It's clear that navigating to product-market fit is a journey of learning, iteration, and closely listening to what our customers truly need.

A common theme I noticed from your responses is the importance of aligning our product closely with the needs of our target users, refining based on their feedback, and focusing on key metrics like retention, reactivation, and renewals. The discussion here really reinforced the idea that PMF isn't a one-size-fits-all concept and varies greatly depending on our specific market and audience.

I really liked the mixpanel article shared (Thanks Benoit!) – it was very insightful for me. It particularly resonated with me on how it describes the shift from founders pushing their product, to a market pull indicating a strong product-market fit and then goes on to explaining way to quantify these “feelings”. For anyone who hasn't checked it out yet, it's a great read for a deeper understanding of PMF.

Also If anyone is open to chatting, I'd love to connect! Whether you want to talk about your startup, share insights on the travel industry, or simply vent about startup challenges, please reach out! Currently, although we are still building out our second MVP, I have been thinking about funding, pitching, bootstrapping vs seeking investment, and early monetization stratetgies.