Hey everybody,

Two funny lessons about products fitting their market from our family Spring Break vacation a while ago. 

One great. One terrible.

Let’s do it!

I’ve got two free events coming up:

  • Monday, July 14th: How to incubate businesses, i.e. how to start businesses that you own but don’t work in. I’m sharing my whole method. This was my all-time most popular event last time I ran it. RSVP here!

  • Wednesday, July 30th: How to hire great people. Your business lives or dies by the people it’s made up of. I’m walking through my complete hiring process and taking your questions. RSVP here!

Both of these are just me, no guests. I’m not selling anything, just giving back. Come on out!

We were on the beach in Mexico. It was baking hot, and I saw a street vendor going chair to chair coming our way. 

He had a tray full of shucked oysters, and a t-shirt that said “Mexican Viagra”.

Now, I’ve had my share of Montezuma’s Revenge. So the last thing I’m going to do is buy oysters from some dude walking down the beach in the blazing sun. 

What is this guy doing? I thought. No American tourist is going to pay for oysters from some random guy on the beach. This is the opposite of product-market fit. 

(Yes, I sound like a human LinkedIn post sometimes. It’s how my brain works.)

Same beach, same time, I also saw an example of incredible product-market fit: shaded chairs. 

Your choice of regular or hairy umbrella.

In some spots on the beach, you can rent a chair in the shade for $10 an hour. 

For a tourist, maybe here once in a lifetime, that’s a no-brainer.  

And everybody wins: the tourist has a way better time, and the chair rental guy makes $50 per day, per chair. 

Back to the oyster guy for a second.  

Later on, I saw him making sales as I walked down the beachfront. Every one of his customers was a Mexican. Not a gringo in sight.

The lesson was that sometimes businesses can be hiding in plain sight. You don’t understand them at all when you aren’t their target market. And, I certainly wasn’t!

—-

3 things from this week

  • Appetizer: On the podcast this week, Heather and I looked at an Estonian ecommerce business selling 3rd-party Lego accessories. Sounds cheap, right? They’re asking $3.5 MILLION bucks.

  • Main: Are franchise fees really worth it? They freak a lot of people out. If that’s you, here’s a great read from my buddy Connor Groce, who has had to buy multiple $300K trucks from Smash My Trash head office.

  • Dessert: A guy can dream, can’t he?

I’d love to hear from you. 

What’s the worst product–market fit you’ve ever seen?

Thanks for reading!

Michael

P.S. HoldCo Conference 2026 tickets are on an early bird sale! If you’re a multiple business owner, this is the place to be next February. Reserve your spot now.

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