Polite Feedback?

You’ve probably heard this before:

“You’re onto something.”
“Wow, that’s really interesting.”
“This could be huge.”

Founders hear those lines and start prepping their Series A deck. But here’s what it really means:

They’re not buying.
They’re not referring.
They’re just being polite.

Polite feedback is a silent killer. It feels like traction, but it’s just noise. Ghosted emails. Zero intros. Vague praise that keeps you building something no one’s actually asking for.

If that’s you, here’s the hard truth: You don’t have product-market fit. You have product-market fiction.

Real fit is measurable.

Collin Stewart even gives you the math:

(Referrals ÷ Conversations) × (1 ÷ Days to Referral) × 1000

If your score is lower than your Uber rating, stop trying to scale.

• Customer development isn’t a checkbox. It’s a filter.

• Sales isn’t optional, it’s your only shot at finding the truth.

• And traction isn’t revenue. It’s referrals.

If no one’s talking about your startup when you’re not in the room, your startup doesn’t matter yet.

Want to stop wasting time and start hearing the truth?

Read The Terrifying Art of Finding Customers. Then delete every “interesting idea” email and go find someone willing to pay.