Stage 0: Initial concept

• An idea for a problem to solve and perhaps an approach to solve it
• No customers yet, but lots of discussions
• No PMF yet. Just the starting point.
  

Stage 1: Getting to your first initial set of successful customers

• You have a clear definition of the problem and solution (with well-defined use cases).
• You’ve created a minimal viable product — the smallest solution needed to land customers.
• You have a core group of happy and referenceable customers (6–8 for enterprise, 20–30 for mid-market, 50+ for SMBs).
  

Stage 2: Scaling with a predictable selling motion

• A clear definition of your target customer, both organization (by size, sector, existing systems, etc.) and persona (role, title).
• A core group of happy and referenceable customers in your target market segment.
• Validation that if you find a prospect with the right characteristics and role, that a non founder sales person (in the case of a direct sales role) can close them consistently and efficiently.
  

Stage 3: Strong tailwind that makes it hard to keep up with demand

• Customers become passionate advocates that not only drive high retention rate (well over 100% including upsell/growth), but are so successful that your reputation spreads.
• Customers now find their way to your door (using organic search), and are directly referred by others. Sales has enough references with similar characteristics that sales cycles actually shrink.
• It’s a bit like Geoffrey Moore’s notion about finding yourself “Inside the Tornado.” But note that many great companies never have their “inside the tornado” moment, where the intersection of multiple adjacent segments leads to a conflagration that makes it nearly impossible to keep up with demand.

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