The only things that matter early on are Product-Market fit and not running out of money. – Fred Lalonde, Hopper Co-Founder and CEO

When you start up, customer development is the most crucial thing you can do.

You can build a product, raise money, hire a team and incorporate your business, but if your product assumptions don’t match the market needs, you’ll eventually regret having done any of these things.

Your startup success depends on your ability to focus on finding the right product for the right market and not running out of money.

Analytics, responsive design, domain name, branding, press, etc. are not keys to your success; without a product that people want, the perfect press release or analytic setup will never matter.

Forget about vanity metrics and think small. Product-Market fit is when you have five passionate customers willing to vouch for your business. The temptation will be strong to start optimizing and building sales channels before reaching P-M fit, but resist it.

Don’t build a company before P-M fit. Keep you burn low.

Fred Lalonde’s list of things that don’t matter early on

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