disruptor, Strategist, AUTHOR & Artist
ABOUT MARKET FIT MASTERY
Vision & Mission
Market Fit Mastery exists to transform how startups achieve product-market fit, increasing their chances of success.
Despite the progress made by the Lean Startup movement, a huge amount of waste still plagues the entrepreneurial process. One major source? Strategic market decisions are often made on gut feeling and committed to way too early. Once you commit to serious product development, your strategy is baked in.
I get it. Founders need traction. You need to build a product to secure investment. And with limited time and expertise, deep market research often takes a backseat. But this tradeoff is risky—it frequently leads to wasted time, money, and even outright failure.
I want to change this.
My mission is to help founders become market-obsessed — moving from gut-driven decisions to quantitative, market-led insights. This shift alone can dramatically increase the odds of successfully navigating product-market fit.
Why does this problem persist? Because deconstructing complex markets and extracting strategic insights remains a luxury reserved for blue-chip corporations. I’ve seen it firsthand (by doing their research) — but it doesn’t have to be this way.
By leveraging AI with proven methodologies, Market Fit Mastery makes high-level market intelligence accessible, actionable, and embedded into the startup process—so founders can move faster, with greater confidence, and with far less waste.
My Story
1. The Compact Sofa Problem: A Lesson in Asking the Right Questions
My journey to working with startups has not been a straight line. Early on, I honed my ability to navigate uncertainty as an artist, being comfortable with a blank canvas, a problem solver challenging the status quo, or a young researcher learning what truly drives decision-making.
One of my biggest lightbulb moments happened in 2006, when I sat with the Managing Director of a £90m turnover sofa design and manufacturing company.
He explained a recurring problem:
"Iain, we have a big issue with the sales of new product lines."
They had conducted customer research—asking existing customers how they’d like the products improved. The designers and production teams followed these suggestions, yet when the new sofas launched, no one bought them.
I asked, “What exactly did you ask your customers?”
He replied, "Obviously, how they wanted us to improve the product."
That was the problem.
Customers aren't great at designing products—they give feedback based on what they already know. Their responses led to incremental product improvements when what was truly needed was a fundamental shift in strategy.
Through deeper market research and customer interviews, we uncovered key market insights:
✔ More customers were moving into smaller flats and urban spaces.
✔ They didn't need new features—they needed a more compact, lightweight sofa to fit through narrow lifts, small doorways, and awkward layouts.
The lesson?
If you ask the wrong questions, you get the wrong answers—leading to waste, failed launches, and lost opportunities.
2. From Sofas to Fintech Startups: Scaling Market Intelligence
Over the past decade, I’ve worked with and mentored dozens of technology startups and established companies, helping them develop new products and go-to-market strategies
The impact?
✔ Led research in £200m+ in product development investment projects, including SAAS Go-To-Market strategies, government software transformation, and chatbot deployment.
✔ Defined the beachhead strategy, in the complex world of consumer banking, for Kroo, a startup bank that now holds over £1bn in customer deposits.
✔ Validated a £100m+ parallel market expansion opportunity for Just Eat
✔ Trained 300+ automotive engineers in disruptive innovation, business modeling, and lean startup principles at WMG University of Warwick and Jaguar Land Rover.
✔ Contributed three chapters on 'Jobs-To-Be-Done' in a book collaboration with Ali Ahmad, Associate Professor at the University of Warwick.
These experiences reinforced a hard truth—the difference between a thriving product and a failed launch isn’t just execution and customer development. It’s market strategy and intelligence.
3. Helping Founders Master Market Fit
This journey led me to create Market Fit Mastery, a framework that brings together everything I’ve learned to help founders rapidly validate valuable market segments and define their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
If you’re a founder navigating market uncertainty, don’t gamble on gut feel—master your market fit.
Join me on the rest of my journey. Let’s eliminate waste, drive growth, and make market strategy a science—not a guessing game.
Working With the Best Clients and Partners
