Todd Jackson
Partner at First Round Capital
Todd Jackson is a partner at First Round Capital, previously product lead for Gmail (4 years), PM for Facebook News Feed/Photos/Groups, Director of PM at Twitter, and VP of Product and Design at Dropbox.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Todd Jackson, former PM lead for Gmail and Facebook News Feed turned First Round Capital partner, shares his comprehensive product-market fit framework with four levels (nascent, developing, strong, extreme) and three dimensions (demand, satisfaction, efficiency). He reveals that roughly 60% of startups never get past level 2, and explains why PMF remains the most important and underexplored topic in startups.
Leadership Principles
- → Finding product-market fit is the single most important thing a startup does in the first three years
- → PMF has three components: demand, satisfaction, and efficiency — but you don't go for all three from the start
- → There are four levels of PMF: nascent, developing, strong, extreme — roughly 60% never pass L2
Notable Quotes
"Finding product-market fit is the single most important thing that your startup does in the first three years, and it's just underexplored and underexplained as a topic."
— On why he's been developing a comprehensive PMF framework at First Round
"We've found a consistent set of patterns: demand, satisfaction, and efficiency. But you don't go for all three from the very beginning."
— On the three dimensions of product-market fit that emerge sequentially
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