All of our Origin stories articles

Airtable's Path to Product-Market Fit — Lessons for Building Horizontal Products

In the first post for our new series, "Paths to Product-Market Fit," Airtable co-founder Andrew Ofstad sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to share the inside story of the no-code platform's long journey and the challenges they came across while building a horizontal product.

Advice for the Pre-Product/Market Fit Days — This Founder’s Playbook for Pivoting with Purpose

CEO Tara Viswanathan shares her biggest lessons from the early years of building Rupa Health — including how to pivot your way into the right product and build the winning team.

Starting a Company in a Space You’re Not an Expert in — This Founder Shares 6 Lessons

From the importance of founder naivety, to seeking out the doubters, to rigorously assessing founder/market fit, Irving Fain shares his lessons from building a company in a space he wasn't an expert in, as well as other takeaways from the earliest days at his startup, Bowery Farming.

The Inside Story of How This Startup Turned a 216-Word Pitch Email into a $2.6 Billion Acquisition

Looker went from a single customer to more than 1700, from a small, scrappy team in Santa Cruz to a 700-person company spanning eight offices around the globe. Now on the heels of its acquisition by Google, co-founders Lloyd Tabb and Ben Porterfield, CEO Frank Bien, and first investor Bill Trenchard

How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product Market Fit

Superhuman founder and CEO Rahul Vohra walks us through the framework his startup used to make product/market fit more actionable, detailing the survey and four-step process that were key to measuring and optimizing it.

How Zapier Pulled Off Its One-and-Done Approach to Fundraising

Zapier CEO and Co-founder Wade Foster is a fundraising contrarian. But he doesn't think he should be. He shares how it's possible to approach financing as a boost — not a crutch — and ways to approach key business decisions early on to keep the itch to fundraise at bay.

Pivot Survival Tactics from Kabam's 3 Near-Death Triumphs

Kabam executed three tough about-faces to eventually sell for $800M. CEO Kevin Chou shares the keys that made this possible.

PlanGrid's Playbook for Startups to Crack Big, Established Industries

PlanGrid is changing the way the construction industry has operated for years. CEO Tracy Young describes the scrappy strategy that made them a catalyst.

The Story Behind How Pocket Hit 20M Users with 20 People

Pocket founder and CEO Nate Weiner on how startups can have an outsized impact with a small team.