WillingnessToPay

Product–Market Fit is not a moment, but a continuous process of discovery and adjustment. It requires founders to repeatedly test assumptions, observe real behavior, and confront uncomfortable truths.

Customers and the Real Problem

• Are customers actively searching for a solution, or are they only using mine because I introduced it?
• Without explanation, do customers immediately understand the product’s value?
• Is the problem I am solving truly painful, or merely a “nice-to-have” improvement?
• If my product disappeared tomorrow, would customers feel genuine frustration—or simply indifference?

Activation – the Moment of Realized Value

• How long does it take for users to experience the core value of the product?
• How many users sign up but never reach the most important feature?
• Am I measuring real usage behavior, or just accounts and downloads?
• If direct onboarding were removed, how many users could still succeed on their own?

Retention – Returning Over Time

• After one month, how many customers are still active?
• When do customers leave, and for what reasons?
• Do customers return because of habit, genuine value, or lack of alternatives?
• Am I looking at total users instead of tracking cohorts over time?

KisStartup insight:
If you cannot clearly map monthly retention curves, you likely do not yet fully understand your customers.

Willingness To Pay (WTP)

• Are customers paying for the solution itself, or due to relationships, pilots, or incentives?
• If prices increase slightly, how many customers remain?
• How many customers purchase a second or third time?
• When external support disappears, will they continue paying?

Growth and Scaling Decisions

• Am I scaling because the data supports it—or due to fundraising or reporting pressure?
• If marketing stopped today, would the product survive?
• Does growth come from returning customers, or only from new ones?
• Am I using capital to mask the absence of PMF?

The Final Question for Founders

• Do customers recommend the product without being asked?
• If forced to choose, would I prefer:

1. fewer customers who are deeply satisfied, or
2. many customers who use the product once and leave?

• Am I listening to data—or only to compliments?

A question KisStartup often asks during mentoring:
“If tomorrow you could no longer call this a ‘startup,’ would you still want to build it?”

PMF is not a trophy to display.
It is a fragile state that must be measured, examined, and continuously validated.
Great founders are not those who claim they have PMF—but those who relentlessly question whether they are deceiving themselves.

© Copyright KisStartup. Any reproduction or citation must clearly acknowledge KisStartup.

 

What is WTP?
Willingness To Pay is not simply about asking:
“Will customers pay?”
but rather:
“Are customers willing to pay the right price, without subsidies or external support, and continue paying repeatedly over time?”

A common and risky misconception
Many startups assume:
“Customers have paid → therefore the product has value.”

However, KisStartup’s practical observations show that customers may pay:

• for a pilot project,
• due to grant or donor funding, or
• because there are no alternatives at the time.

Yet they may not:

• purchase a second time,
• expand usage, or
• recommend the product to others.

In such cases, WTP exists momentarily, but Product–Market Fit (PMF) does not.

WTP alone is not enough – repurchase and continued usage matter
A product with genuine PMF typically shows that:

• customers return for second and third purchases,
• perceived value increases over time rather than declines,
• customers proactively request additional features, service tiers, or expansions.

Conversely, when:

• only a small number of customers pay,
• the observation period is too short, and
• data is not analyzed by cohorts and cycles,

startups are highly prone to false positives about PMF.

KisStartup’s perspective: PMF is a process, not a milestone
Across our incubation and acceleration programs, we emphasize that PMF is not something you “achieve” in a single month.
PMF is an ongoing process of validating assumptions through real behavior and real data.

We therefore advise startups to:

• observe at least 3–6 months before declaring PMF,
• track activation, retention, and WTP simultaneously, and
• avoid premature scaling when evidence is still weak.

Do not celebrate too early
The first paying customer matters.
But PMF only emerges when customers stay, return, and pay repeatedly.

If you are building a startup, ask yourself:

• Do customers come back?
• How long do they continue using the product?
• Do they buy more or upgrade?
• Will they still pay when support or incentives are removed?

Only when these questions are answered with data rather than intuition are you truly approaching PMF.

© Copyright KisStartup. Any reproduction or citation must clearly acknowledge KisStartup.