Convincing people of things is possibly the hardest thing we have to do as founders, right?

And there are so many different audiences, there's investors, there's future co-founders, there's your earliest users, there's the press, there's the industry you sell to in general.

And I think each one is its own fun little puzzle.

The best most awesome thing you can do is basically have some form of narrative that sounds like,

this train is leaving the station.

And if you don't join now, I don't know that you will be able to join.

The market doesn't care.

Candidates and investors are looking for the storyline of differentiation,

sometimes just for differentiation, because they're in the business of finding different things. Remember, you have the right not to serve. They used to have a survey. We'd be like, what mobile phone do you have? They'd say Android, and I said, well, you can't have superhuman. And people get confused, like, why? Isn't it my decision whether or not I buy? and I'm like, no, it's my decision whether or not I sell.

Most founders think product market fit is something. And people get confused, like, why? Isn't it my decision whether or not I buy? And I'm like, no, it's my decision whether or not I sell.

Most founders think product market fit is something you feel.

Raul Vora tried to turn it into a system.

Before founding Superhuman, Raul built Reportive, one of the earliest successful Gmail

plugins.

But with Superhuman, he approached the problem differently. Instead of chasing

growth immediately, he spent the years refining the product, onboarding users manually, charging

premium pricing from day one, and obsessing over every interaction. The result was not just a

productivity app, but a product that developed a kind of cult following inside Silicon Valley.

In this conversation, Raul breaks down the frameworks behind that process,

from game design principles and onboarding psychology, to the product market fit engine that helps superhuman grow.

Raoul, as I said, is the founder and CEO of Superhuman, but also previously to that

reportive.

...