Validation & product-market fit
Building the business
1,888 episodes across 51 shows cover validation & product-market fit. The shows that cover it most are How I Built This, The Startup CPG Podcast and Global Medical Device Podcast. The most recent, from 13 Oct 2026, is “361 - Men have skin too and love good packaging design! W/ Freddie Sheridan from YCODE” from People of Packaging.
Finding out whether people want it: customer discovery, demand testing, early customers, pivots.
1888 episodes from 51 shows, most relevant and most recent first.
1888 episodes
How to Do Better Design Research with Jill Bohaboy | S3E02
Jill Bohaboy, founder of Trek Solutions, joins Rob to discuss the craft of design research, emphasizing that meaningful insights come from observation and qualitative methods rather than just asking people what they want. They explore…
10 Years of How I Built This: A Decade of Innovation, Risk and Reinvention
Guy Raz and Jamie Siminoff, founder of Ring, review highlights from ten years of 'How I Built This,' discussing the emotional and financial struggles of founders like Sam Kalagani of Dogfish Head, Eileen Fisher, and Sarah Blakely of Spanx…
PDX Webinar Trailer, Engineering for Success: Making Product-Market Fit an Actionable Design Goal
This episode is a trailer for an upcoming PDX webinar featuring Arne Lang-Ree, Chief Design Officer and Cofounder at Spanner. The webinar will demonstrate how engineering teams can transform product-market fit into a practical engineering…
Where it comes up0:00
How to Ask Someone to Invest in Your CPG Brand, with Fave's Ryan Raish
Ryan Raish, founder of Fave, details his journey from a 20-year CPG career at brands like Popchips and Honest Tea to launching a certified organic powdered drink mix. He explains how he self-funded two years of R&D and retailer feedback…
241 - ICH Q14 Explained: Have We Been Validating Methods Backwards?
Subhi Saadeh, Founder of Let's Combinate, explains the core concepts of ICH Q14, focusing on the shift from traditional validation to a science- and risk-based analytical procedure lifecycle. He details how the Analytical Target Profile…
Where it comes up0:00
Springdale Ventures' Dan Graham on Financial Forecasting and Investor Communications
Dan Graham, Co-Founder of Springdale Ventures, explains the firm's seed-to-Series-A investment thesis, focusing on fast-moving consumer goods with strong unit economics and repeat-purchase potential. He details how Springdale evaluates…
Investor Spotlight: Hayden Williams, BrandProject
Hayden Williams, Partner at BrandProject, discusses the firm's pre-launch investing strategy and the recent P&G acquisition of portfolio company Wonderbelly. He details how founders Noah and Lucas built a clean-label antacid brand from the…
#425: The "Front End" of Medical Device Innovation: From Idea to Market
Stuart Grant, founder of Archetype MedTech and former Johnson & Johnson executive, explains the 'front end of innovation' in medical device development, defining it as the critical phase between applied science and new product development…
#447: Solving the Pediatric MedTech Gap with Edwin Lindsay
Edwin Lindsay, a MedTech operator and QARA leader who co-founded SureMakers and runs Compliant Solutions, discusses the systemic barriers to pediatric medical device development, noting that these devices face adult-level regulatory risks…
Ep. 46 - Deciding What to Work on Next
Steven Hawes and Lucy Che Park of Opulo discuss their framework for prioritizing product development, emphasizing that customer interviews and community feedback are the primary inputs for deciding what to build next. They detail how they…
352 - Are you ready to see the next revolution in packaging testing?!? Ankit Dhawan from Blue-Pill.ai
Ankit Dhawan, founder of Bluepill.ai, explains how his software uses AI-driven digital twins to simulate consumer behavior for packaging testing, reducing costs from $15,000–$25,000 and weeks of time to under ten minutes. During a live…
Less competition, more creation with Renée Mauborgne
Renée Mauborgne, co-author of Blue Ocean Strategy and Beyond Disruption, explains how entrepreneurs can create uncontested market space rather than fighting in saturated 'red oceans.' She uses examples like Cirque du Soleil, Tesla, and…
Insomnia Cookies: Seth Berkowitz
Seth Berkowitz, co-founder and CEO of Insomnia Cookies, recounts the 21-year journey of building a $350 million late-night cookie delivery business. He details early pivots, including a failed partnership with the frozen yogurt brand Tasty…
Founder Fundraising Journey: Frozen One, Alan Chen & Conner Mennig
Alan Chen and Conner Mennig, co-founders of Frozen One, detail their journey from prototyping with a Ninja Creami machine to securing $5.5 million in funding and expanding into 2,300 retail doors, including Target and Wegmans. They discuss…
Ep. 15: Can Mexico Become Robotics’ Next Powerhouse? | The Robo Success Podcast
Aldo Luevano, Chairman and Co-Founder of Roomie IT, explains how his company pivoted from consumer robotics to enterprise AI software due to the difficulty of proving ROI for humanoid robots in Latin America's low-labor-cost market. He…
#256 - What Is Grocery Run? with Dan Choi (NA Beverage Co) and Stephanie McGregor (Ringa)
Dan Choi, founder of NA Beverage Company, and Stephanie McGregor, founder of Ringa, discuss their extensive experience attending Startup CPG Grocery Run events to secure retail distribution. They explain how these regional and…
Investor Spotlight: Alex Borschow, Rocana Ventures
Alex Borschow, Managing Partner at Rocana Ventures, explains that the firm targets Series A consumer brands generating $7-25 million in revenue, focusing on food, beverage, and personal care. He details how Rocana evaluates product-market…
247: Lessons from a Serial Entrepreneur: Mark DeSantis on Startups, Robotics, and Commercializing Tech
Serial entrepreneur Mark DeSantis, who recently sold Bloomfield Robotics to Kubota Corporation, explains his philosophy of focusing on 'big and boring' problems rather than chasing technology trends. He details how Bloomfield used…
#397: Winning Over Skeptics: the Key to Product Adoption in Healthcare
Tiffany Ryder, founder of Red Flag Hero and a physician assistant, explains why healthcare professionals are skeptical of new medical devices and how to win them over. She argues that authenticity and workflow integration are critical…
#014: Why Your IoT Project Still Hasn’t Taken Off — And How to Fix It
Chris Coleman and Tyler from Memfault host Afzal Saleem, an IoT entrepreneur and former T-Mobile Netherlands startup lead, to discuss why IoT projects stall despite technical viability. They analyze organizational resistance, such as the…
Why climate tech startups get this one thing wrong
Shayle Khan, an investor at Energy Impact Partners (EIP), discusses common pitfalls in techno-economic analysis (TEA) with colleagues Dr. Greg Thiel and Dr. Melissa Ball. They argue that startups often fail by using unreasonable inputs…
Athletic Brewing Company: Bill Shufelt
Bill Shufelt, founder of Athletic Brewing Company, explains how he pivoted from a finance career to reinvent non-alcoholic beer after quitting alcohol to improve his health. He details the struggle to find a brewer, eventually partnering…
The better mousetrap fallacy
Andy Lubershane, head of research and partner at Energy Impact Partners, joins host Shayle Kann to discuss the 'better mousetrap fallacy' in climate tech, arguing that in sectors like solar, batteries, and nuclear, scaling existing…
Founder Feature: The OB/GYN Formulating Pharmaceuticals for Period Care - Margo Harrison of Wave Bye
Margo Harrison, founder and CEO of Wave Bye, explains her strategy for launching a proactive, pharmaceutical-grade treatment for period pain and bleeding, targeting a market release between late 2027 and early 2029. She details the science…
#016: From Startup to Global Brand: Scaling Engineering at reMarkable
Nico Comier, CTO of reMarkable, discusses scaling the company from a garage startup to a global brand, focusing on the development of the Paper Pro Move. He explains how customer feedback drove the decision to create a smaller, portable…
Founder + Funder: Anabel González, Founder of Good Bacteria and Hayden Williams, Partner of BrandProject
Anabel González, founder of Good Bacteria, and Hayden Williams, Partner at BrandProject, discuss the investment journey of Good Bacteria, a rotating probiotic system. González explains how a postpartum health journey led to a pivot from a…
Investor Spotlight: Elly Truesdell, New Fare Partners
Elly Truesdel, founder and Managing Partner at New Fare Partners, discusses her transition from Whole Foods to venture investing, highlighting her fund's focus on seed and Series A food and beverage companies. She details the differences…
S3 E4: An Impact Hardware VC's Playbook with Carlota Ochoa from Extentia
Carlota Ochoa, Principal at Extentia Capital, explains that the fund looks for hardware startups with low residual R&D risk, step-change innovations, and a clear path to cost parity, rather than marginal green improvements. She highlights…
#377: Designing a Medical Device for a Global User
Dr. Matthew Wettergreen, Director of the Global Medical Innovation program at Rice University, explains how his curriculum prepares students for medical device careers by simulating professional practice across diverse healthcare contexts…
165 - Anatomy of a Target Product Profile(TPP): All 10 Sections EXPLAINED with Marta New
Marta New, CEO of Radyus Research, explains the anatomy of a Target Product Profile (TPP), a strategic document that aligns clinical, regulatory, and commercial goals early in drug development. She details the 10 critical sections of a…
S3 E1: Mastering Tech Adoption and The Hardware Development Workflow with Jon Hirshtick
Jon Hirshtick, founder of SolidWorks and Onshape, discusses the evolution of hardware development tools, emphasizing that software is a tool rather than a solution. He explains how customer visits and inferring needs drove the creation of…
The U.S. nuclear groundswell
Chris Colbert, CEO of Elementl Power, discusses the company's recent partnership with Google to develop three nuclear projects totaling 1.8 gigawatts, aiming to drive down costs through serial deployment rather than one-off builds. He…
#441: ICYMI (In Case You Missed It!) How Artificial Intelligence is Impacting the MedTech Industry
Ashkon Rasooli, a biomedical engineer and quality management expert, discusses the integration of AI in the medical device industry, highlighting the fundamental difference between deterministic software and statistical AI models. He…
#195 - What Do Health and Sustainability Really Mean to Consumers? | Dana Kim & Sam Kass
Sam Kass, former White House Chef and partner at Acre Ventures, and Dana Kim, founder and CEO of Highlight, discuss how consumers perceive health and sustainability in CPG. Kass explains his work with Plezi to create better-for-you…
#374: Clinical Evidence - The Key to Market Adoption
Shaherah Yancy, CEO of Research Lifecycle Solutions and former executive at Medtronic, Stryker, and Smith & Nephew, explains why robust clinical and regulatory strategies are critical for MedTech companies to secure funding and achieve…
Investor Spotlight: Mollye Santulli, Springdale Ventures
Mollye Santulli, Principal at Springdale Ventures, explains the firm's investment thesis, which targets founder-led consumer brands generating $1–$15 million in revenue, with a sweet spot of $1–$5 million. She details Springdale's…
Investor Spotlight: Brian Bernstein, Rich Products Ventures
Brian Bernstein, an investor at Rich Products Ventures, explains how the corporate venture arm of the $6 billion frozen food manufacturer Rich Products operates as a hybrid financial and strategic partner, investing $100K-$3M checks in…
EP 147: Talking All Things AI with Benedict Evans
Benedict Evans, a technology analyst and author, discusses the current state of AI with hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg, comparing the industry's early uncertainty to the internet in 1997. Evans argues that while general-purpose models…
"What's the ROI?" is the Wrong Question: Measuring Marketing Impact w/ Joe Sullivan
Joe Sullivan, founder of the industrial marketing agency Gorilla 76, explains why asking 'What's the ROI?' too early is a common mistake for manufacturing leaders. He contrasts two scenarios: a company needing short-term sales lift (like…
IoT Is Finally Delivering | The Things Industries' Wienke Giezeman | Internet of Things Podcast
Wienke Giezeman, CEO and co-founder of The Things Industries, explains how the IoT industry has moved past the 'hype cycle' to deliver tangible ROI through mature, scalable LoRaWAN infrastructure. He details why early deployments failed…
199 - How Modeling Can Cut in Half for Combination Products, V&V 40, and Cutting Dev Time with Mark Burchnall
Mark Burchnall, Director of Engineering at PSN Labs, explains how mechanical modeling and simulation can reduce prototype iterations by 50% in combination product development. He details the use of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and…
Advice Line with Marcia Kilgore of Beauty Pie (June 2025)
Serial entrepreneur Marcia Kilgore, founder of Beauty Pie, Bliss, and Soap & Glory, joins Guy Raz on the Advice Line to help three early-stage founders. She advises Victor Garcia of Sol Dias on balancing brick-and-mortar growth with…
#424: The MedTech Startup Survival Guide with Steve Bell
Steve Bell, a veteran MedTech entrepreneur and co-founder of various AI-powered initiatives, explains why over 75% of startups fail due to emotional attachment to non-viable concepts and underestimating the time and financial commitment…
Why Investor Ryan Ball Wants You to Pivot Fast and Fundraise Smart
Ryan Ball, founder of Sperian Ventures, explains his investment criteria for early-stage CPG brands, emphasizing the importance of sales velocity data, specifically pre-, during, and post-promo metrics, to assess scalability and rebuy…
Ep. 39 - Starting a Hardware Company
Stephen Hawes and Lucian Chapa, founders of Opulo, discuss the realities of starting a hardware company, emphasizing the necessity of accepting failure and overcoming imposter syndrome. They share personal anecdotes about failed projects…
#223 - Startup CPG Innovation Sections at UNFI Selling Shows ft. Jubilee’s and Loopini Pizza
Ashley Waldman of Jubilee’s and Damiano Messineo of Loopini Pizza discuss their success at the Startup CPG Innovation Sections at UNFI Selling Shows, where they secured major distribution deals. Waldman explains how her strategic focus on…
Investor Spotlight: Liz Myslik of Loft Growth Partners
Liz Myslik, Managing Partner at Loft Growth Partners, explains that her firm invests in purpose-driven CPG brands with $5-20M in revenue that have achieved product-market fit and strong unit economics. She highlights Back to the Roots as a…
#423: Inside the Investor's Mind: What VCs Look For in MedTech
Josh Eckelberry, Principal at Solas BioVentures, explains the firm's operator-led investment philosophy and its 'DOTE, GOAT, FLOAT, MOAT' framework for evaluating early-stage MedTech startups. He details how founders can de-risk their…
Ep. 31 - Going to Events
Stephen Oz and Lucian Chaper of Opulo discuss the strategic value of attending trade shows for their LumenPnP pick-and-place machine, emphasizing that events are crucial for gathering customer data and shaping product direction rather than…
Ep. 18 - How to Write a PRD (Product Requirement Document)
Steven Oz and Lucian Chaper of Opulo explain how to write a Product Requirement Document (PRD) to ensure hardware products solve real customer problems rather than chasing 'nerd snipe' distractions. They detail the process of conducting…