Product-Market Fit Examples from B2B SaaS
The most useful product-market fit examples are the messy ones: companies that tried things that didn’t work first. These come from the founders’ own published accounts.
What are good examples of product-market fit in B2B software?
Good examples are Segment, which found fit with an open-source analytics library after about 18 months on other ideas; Superhuman, which measured and raised its fit score from 22% to 58%; and Slack, which grew out of an internal tool built while making a game. Each started with something that didn’t work.
What happened at Segment?
Segment’s founders spent time on a lecture-notes tool and a classroom feedback tool, then an analytics product, before noticing a small library they had written to send data to several analytics tools. When they released it as analytics.js, it reached the top of Hacker News and got about a thousand GitHub stars on its first day (Peter Reinhardt).
- Lesson: the product they needed themselves was the one the market wanted.
- Lesson: a strong, fast reaction from developers was a clearer signal than months of lukewarm pilots.
What happened at Superhuman?
Superhuman surveyed users on how disappointed they would be without the product and scored 22% in 2017. It focused on the users who loved it most, split its roadmap between what they loved and what held similar users back, and reached 58% within three quarters, according to its founder.
| Point in time | Very disappointed | Very disappointed, relative |
|---|---|---|
| First survey, summer 2017 | 22% | |
| After focusing on its best-fit segment | 33% | |
| About three quarters later | 58% |
What happened at Slack?
Slack grew out of Tiny Speck, a company building an online game called Glitch. The team built an internal chat tool to work together; when the game closed in 2012, they turned the tool into Slack. The lesson is similar to Segment’s: a tool the team relied on daily turned out to solve a wider problem.
Watch for the unexpected pull.
Fit often shows up somewhere you weren’t looking. When a side project gets a stronger reaction than the main product, take it seriously.
What do the examples have in common?
The examples share three things: the first idea didn’t work, the eventual product solved a problem the team knew first-hand, and fit showed up as a strong, fast reaction from a specific group rather than slow, polite interest. Signs to look for are on signs you have product-market fit. Deciding when to change course is on pivot or persevere.
Frequently asked questions
What is an example of product-market fit?
Segment’s analytics.js library reached the top of Hacker News and got about a thousand GitHub stars on its first day, after other ideas failed.
How did Superhuman measure product-market fit?
By asking users how disappointed they’d be without it, then raising the very disappointed share from 22% to 58%.
How did Slack find product-market fit?
It grew from an internal chat tool the team built while making a game called Glitch, which closed in 2012.
Do most companies pivot before finding PMF?
Many published stories include earlier ideas that didn’t work, but these are survivor accounts, not averages.
What can B2B founders learn from these examples?
Solve a problem you know, focus on the group that reacts strongly, and watch for unexpected pull.
Where do these examples come from?
From the founders’ own published accounts, linked or named on this page.
Sources & further reading
Examples come from founders’ own published accounts. Studies are named with their source and date on each page.