The universe is a funny thing, it leaves you with breadcrumbs, and, in my experience, it is wise to listen. Earlier this week I read an article on the subject matter- “Product Market Fix” or “PMF”. On Saturday, one of our mentors posted an article, you guessed it, on Product Market Fix. Later that same day a well-known North Carolina entrepreneur posted on LinkedIn on “Product Market Fit”. Coincidence? No, the Truth is Out There.
I have been thinking about this for some time. I am not overly concerned with F3TCH’s PMF. This is not out of arrogance; I have personally spent tens of thousands of hours and generated tens of millions of dollars in sales per year in guest room technology. Add our team’s experience and our PMF is solid. No, what has been bugging me is different and all the talk on PMF has given me an itch that needs soothing.
What has been on my mind is that we need to get out there. Yesterday. The proverbial rubber needs to meet the road. Time to take market F3TCH to hotels one by one and get dirty. We need to know the objections, the concerns, and the interest level in this solution. We have done this already, but this time it is different, we have the product nearly scaled. This is not a meeting to discuss gust room technology in theory, but to ask for a commitment.
In doing that we will know very quickly the objections, the challenges, and the way this needs to be sold. It will almost certainly give us a few add-ons to features that will be needed right away. A final iteration as we hit the market, that final adjustment to be truly ready and have that PMF and messaging just so. Details matter.
As such, this should be a fun week of literally going old school and knocking on doors to get meetings set up, discussions, and progress. We will hit downtown Wilmington and Carolina Beach this week. (Reminds me of one of the best direct salespeople I had the good fortune to work with, Sweet Lou, and our days of cold-calling buildings in Miami. It did not count unless we got thrown out by security. Fun times.)
Wish us luck!
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