[$100M+ raised] Get product-market fit validation without an MVP

Building a Successful Startup: Lessons from Materialized Founder Arjun Narayan

Starting a successful startup is a dream for many entrepreneurs. However, it's not an easy feat to achieve. Most startups aim to get their product in the hands of customers as soon as possible to get feedback and iterate quickly. But what do you do if you're working on something that takes longer to build an MVP? Arjun Narayan, the founder of Materialized, a data warehouse for operational needs, has raised over $100 million and has some advice for startups in this situation.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. The Importance of Getting Feedback Early

3. Building a Database Startup

4. The Challenges of Building a Database Startup

5. The Importance of Finding the Right Investors

6. The Journey to Product-Market Fit

7. Lessons Learned from Materialized's Journey

8. Conclusion

Introduction

Arjun Narayan is the co-founder of Materialized, a data warehouse for operational needs. The company is about four years old and has raised over $100 million. In this article, we'll explore Arjun's journey as a startup founder and the lessons he's learned along the way.

The Importance of Getting Feedback Early

Most startups aim to get their product in the hands of customers as soon as possible to get feedback and iterate quickly. However, if you're working on something that takes longer to build an MVP, you need to get the feedback loop going differently. Arjun suggests showing people your architecture and design and getting them to validate that it's something they would use in the fullness of time. This approach allows you to concurrently execute some amount of go-to-market, even though you can't take money for your product from customers.

Building a Database Startup

Building a database startup is a unique challenge. It takes multiple years of R&D to build an MVP, and the MVP for a database is shockingly large. Arjun suggests building out the scaffolding of the product first, which is the tech that underpins the product. In parallel, you need to spend time recruiting and building the engineering team. Hiring more engineers to work on the product is critical to getting a database startup off the ground.

The Challenges of Building a Database Startup

Building a database startup is not like building any other startup. It's a very technically innovative but complex business that requires a lot of investment. The MVP for a database is much larger than other startups, and it takes multiple years to build. The go-to-market strategy for a database startup is also different. You need to show people your architecture and design and get them to validate that it's something they would use in the fullness of time.

The Importance of Finding the Right Investors

Finding the right investors is critical for any startup, but it's especially important for a database startup. You need investors who understand the technology and the value of the technology. Arjun suggests restricting the set of investors you talk to investors who have invested in databases before. You need investors who are capable of understanding the technology and the value of the technology.

The Journey to Product-Market Fit

Product-market fit is a spectrum rather than a single moment. It rarely goes from stumbling in the darkness to suddenly finding the light switch and everything's perfectly clear. It's more of a spectrum across a variety of different groups. The first sign that you're on to something is when you launch publicly, and there's a deep amount of resonance among very sophisticated CTO or architect personas. The second sign is when you land your first customer, which is a huge step in the journey.

Lessons Learned from Materialized's Journey

Arjun's journey as a startup founder has taught him many lessons. He learned the importance of getting feedback early, building a database startup, finding the right investors, and the journey to product-market fit. He also learned that building a startup is a journey, and it rarely goes from stumbling in the darkness to suddenly finding the light switch and everything's perfectly clear.

Conclusion

Building a successful startup is a dream for many entrepreneurs, but it's not an easy feat to achieve. Arjun Narayan's journey as a startup founder has taught him many lessons, and he's shared some of those lessons with us in this article. If you're building a startup, remember to get feedback early, build a strong team, find the right investors, and remember that building a startup is a journey.