Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Today's guest essay comes from Candace Nelson, the founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes. In an excerpt from her new book, Sweet Success: A Simple Recipe to Turn Your Passion Into Profit, she explains how she found product-market fit. Plus: The House GOP revolts and Victoria's Secret loses its CEO. Have a terrific Thursday.
- Sweet success. In 2003, I left San Francisco for Los Angeles. In my new kitchen, I began baking a new kind of gourmet cupcake. Word got out and orders poured in—to the point where I stopped being able to trace the source.
At the time, I didn’t realize that I was building validation for my product. Silicon Valley investors call it “product-market fit,” and it’s when customers are clamoring for your product. Product-market fit is the holy grail of tech startups, with new companies iterating on their product until they can prove signs of having achieved it. Perhaps because I’m a baker, though, I like to think of product-market fit more as an appetite.
