Is there one right way to build a successful startup?

There’s certainly a lot of advice out there on the best way to do it…

↳ I’m often one of those folks giving advice 😉

And though I do have strong opinions on what increases the likelihood of success for early stage founders...

👉 There is more than one way to find Product-Market Fit.

I attribute this to founders having their own unique approach to building products and serving markets.

In other words, founders have different...

🌟 North Stars 🌟

These are the starting point orientations for finding product-market fit.

I've shown 8 variations of North Stars with different sequences of questions (See image)...

And I think they fall into 2 types of startup journeys:

1️⃣ Those who have found a market problem

↳ And are seeking the right solution. 🔎

2️⃣ Those who have built a cool solution

↳ And are seeking a market to buy it. 💸

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I’ve highlighted some well known startup successes that I believe fit into a specific journey

(Canva, Procore Technologie, Loom , Calendly , Uber , OpenAI , Jasper, Tesla)

But keep in mind, this is an oversimplification.

Anyone who has ever worked on a startup knows that this journey is anything but linear.

And it’s very likely that your north star will change as you make progress.

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I’d love to hear from fellow founders…

⭐❓ What North Star are you following?