Paul Martino on why Product-Market Fit should always be evolving for startups and growth stage companies

Paul Martino is truly a pioneer in the world of social networking. His early online gaming innovations from over 30 years ago are the inspiration for several of the modern social gaming offerings, and he holds over a dozen patents on core social networking concepts, content targeting, and recommendation systems. In this episode, we chat with him about his experience in finding product-market fit and keeping up with ever-changing market trends.

About Paul:Paul Martino is an entrepreneur and investor, interested in the intersection of sports, gaming, gambling, and technology. He is co-founder of Bullpen Capital and has founded seven other companies, including Ahpah Software (a computer security firm); Tribe (one of the world’s first social networks), and Aggregate Knowledge (a big data advertising attribution company).  His latest endeavor, Bankroll, is building a next-generation sports betting-focused elevated dining restaurant in his hometown of Philadelphia.

In this episode we discuss:

03:05 What exactly is product market fit?

04:05 Is it more important to focus on people, product or market when starting out?

09:36 How should people think about finding new markets?

11:55 The importance of iteration speed when finding product market fits

17:57 What should founders ask themselves to find out if they have product market fit?

21:20 Testing whether you have product market fit

23:11 Are NPS scores valuable?

24:55 What are some misconceptions founders should be aware of?

30:50 How do founders avoid premature scaling?

32:28 Advice for hiring when you find product market fit

34:48 Bullpen’s plan to continue helping firms find product market fit

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