The situation
I recently spoke with the founders of a company commercializing a new materials technology.
One of the challenges they faced early on was that the technology had a wide range of potential applications. It could be integrated into many different products across multiple industries, which meant there wasn't an obvious place to begin.
Like many founders working on a platform technology, they needed to determine where they could create the most value first.
The plan
Early on, they explored a variety of markets and spoke with customers across different industries.
Automotive was one of the applications they initially believed could be a strong fit. They also spent time meeting with potential customers, attending conferences, and learning how different industries thought about adopting new technology. Throughout that process, the underlying technology remained the same. What they were trying to understand was where it would fit best.
Where uncertainty remained
As those conversations continued, narrowing their focus became harder rather than easier.
Many of the applications appeared technically feasible, and customers across several industries expressed interest. The challenge was figuring out which market was ready to adopt the technology.
One comment from the conversation stayed with me: the founder said they were looking for what product-market fit feels like. In their view, the strongest signal was customer pull.
What needed to be proven first
That idea gradually changed how they evaluated every opportunity.
Instead of asking which market looked the most promising, they started paying closer attention to where customers were already trying to pull the technology into their products.
Over time, one application consistently stood out. The customer need was clearer, the value proposition was easier to communicate, and the conversations moved forward more naturally. That became the market they chose to focus on because it was where they saw the strongest signs that customers were ready to adopt the technology.
The pattern
One thing I found interesting about this conversation was how the founders described product-market fit.
It wasn't something they believed they could determine from a spreadsheet or by ranking different markets. It became clearer as they spent time with customers and paid attention to where momentum was developing. The more those signals repeated themselves, the more confidence they had that they were moving toward the right market.
If you're in a similar spot
If your technology could serve multiple markets, it may be worth asking a different question.
Instead of asking, "Which market should we choose?", ask "Which market is already pulling us toward it?"