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If you're a venture-backed SaaS company looking to nail PMF and make the leap from 0 to $1M ARR, this is your window.

We don’t just coach you through it. This is a done for you execution sprint to validate your market, build pipeline, and get real traction.

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#103: Here's What Happens When You Hit PMF


Read time: 3 min

Today, I will discuss how to know, with absolute certainty, that you’ve hit Product Market Fit (PMF).

Forget what you’ve read about in surveys, net promoter scores, or fancy dashboards. In my opinion they’re all bullshit.

Marc Andreessen, the guy who coined the term, said it best:

“You can always feel when PMF is happening.

Over 500 early-stage founders have come through the Rampd program. We’ve helped more teams achieve PMF and hit $1M ARR than any other agency, coach, or “fractured” whatever.

So what does it feel like? What does it look like? How do you know?

That’s what I’m going to discuss in this breakdown, based on both Andreessen’s original ideas and firsthand experiences and patterns we’ve seen helping early-stage startups get real traction.

You have to build the product, the market, and the fit, all at the same time.

~ Rahul Vohra

After listening to over 7,000 sales calls and seeing hundreds of reps in motion, you start to recognize patterns fast. I will say that PMF doesn’t show up in a spreadsheet; it shows up in prospect behavior, it shows up in their energy, and product momentum. Success leaves clues—the same ones, over and over again.

Here’s what I’ve seen happen when you begin closing in on PMF.

Push flips to pull

You’re not cold emailing leads and praying for replies, you're fielding inbound. Users are signing up before you launch on Product Hunt. Referrals come without you asking. Your name pops up in slack groups, newsletters, X threads, and VC group chats. Investors stop ghosting and start chasing (my fav). People are talking about your product before you have a chance to pitch it. That’s when you know: the market wants it more than you try to sell it.

Every metric starts bending in your favor

You stop feeling like you're forcing it. Retention climbs. Churn slows. Activation improves, even without perfect onboarding. Sales cycles decrease. You’re not essentially bribing people to stay; the product becomes sticky. You’re no longer frantically patching leaks to survive. Now you're optimizing, not firefighting. It's not completely dialed in, but the direction is unmistakable.

The pressure flips, from internal to external

Pre PMF, the pressure comes from inside the building: “Should we pivot?” “Is anyone even using this?” “Why is churn so high?”

After PMF, the pressure comes from outside. Users get pissed when you miss a release. They flood your inbox with feature requests, edge cases, and bug reports, not because they’re annoyed, but because they’re invested. You no longer have to chase feedback. Many of our clients will get unsolicited loom videos from power users walking you through broken workflows. You’ve crossed the line, you're no longer testing a hypothesis, you're powering part of someone’s day.

The team dynamic shifts from grind to mission

This is a big one, and the one that gives me the most fulfillment as a coach. There’s still urgency, but it’s no longer driven by fear. The team isn’t burning the candle on both ends. They’re fired up because traction is here, and they don’t want to miss it. Don’t get me wrong, late nights still happen, but now you’re grinding to keep up with demand, not to keep the lights on.

Growth stops feeling like magic. It starts feeling mechanical

It’s not just hope or hype anymore; growth becomes repeatable. You know your top customer acquisition channels. You know what makes deals close. Your CAC drops because the product sells itself. Your LTV rises because customers stick, expand, and refer. Cold outbound that used to get ignored suddenly lands warm replies. You’re not asking “is there a market?”, you’re asking “how fast can we hire to keep up?” That’s when you realize the machine is working. It just needs more fuel.

I’ve done my best to distill what I’ve seen after sitting in on over 7,000 sales calls and working hands on with 500+ early-stage teams. PMF isn’t theoretical; I’ve watched it happen in real time, across industries, products, and founders. And while every journey looks different, the signals are surprisingly consistent.

If you’re chasing PMF right now, remember, it’s not about perfection; it’s about momentum, behavior, and undeniable pull from the market.

Trust the patterns. Success always leaves clues. And invest in a coach! 😉 



That’s it for today, folks.

See you all next week!

Darren

P.S. Connect with me on LinkedIn here! (write newsletter in the note with the invite)

P.P.S. If you’re a venture-backed company interested in coaching, book a call here.

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