Brian Balfour, Founder & CEO of Reforge and former VP of Growth at HubSpot, joins Mostly Growth to explore why product-market fit is a moving target. He introduces the concept of the Product-Market Fit Treadmill, a state where rising customer expectations and competitive pressure make it harder than ever to stay ahead. Brian breaks down how AI has accelerated PMF collapse, explains the hidden costs of product adoption, and shares how Reforge shipped five AI-native products with a team of just 20 people. Packed with frameworks, strategic insight, and startup realism, this episode is essential listening for product leaders, operators, and founders navigating the next wave of GTM.—LINKS: Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.comCJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/Brian Balfour: brianbalfour.comBrian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bbalfour/Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/https://brianbalfour.com/four-fits-growth-frameworkhttps://x.com/amasad/status/1981201454032703662?s=46https://getlatka.com/companies/firefliesaihttps://x.com/rowancheung/status/1988218743952916537?https://gamma.app/insights/how-we-built-a-usd100m-business-differently—RELATED EPISODES:When the marketing math doesn’t math | with Emily Kramerhttps://youtu.be/sSuoV_YSrlwWhy Founders Are Posting Sad Dinnershttps://youtu.be/Zl6NSIHF2Gk—TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 Preview and Intro00:01:15 Sponsors – Pulley, Metronome00:03:36 Guest Introduction – Brian Balfour00:06:24 Writing, Frameworks, and Career Foundations00:09:56 PMF Misconceptions and the Treadmill00:13:25 AI Acceleration and PMF Threshold Shifts00:16:07 CRM Expectations and Changing Market Dynamics00:18:53 AI-Native CRM Approaches and Workflow Changes00:21:08 R&D Investment and Customer Expectations00:23:37 Roadmaps, Feature Velocity, and Customer Education00:26:02 AI Adoption Across Product Discovery, Delivery, and Adoption00:27:17 Product Adoption Constraints and Human Bottlenecks00:29:06 Platform Cycles and Distribution Shifts00:31:05 Framework for Evaluating Platform Bets00:33:20 Open–Close Platform Dynamics in AI00:36:34 Emerging Platforms and Early Ecosystem Bets00:39:10 AI Discovery Channels and Traffic Distribution00:40:03 Distribution Shifts and OpenAI’s Multi-Channel Bets00:41:15 Hiring, Resumes, and AI-Generated Applications00:43:20 Note-Taking Apps, Market Size, and “Flintstoning”00:46:06 Vertical AI Note-Taking and System-of-Record Paths00:48:27 Gamma, Canva, and AI Presentation Tools00:50:15 Onboarding Innovation with AI Agents00:51:57 Closing Remarks and Outro—SPONSORS:Pulley is the cap table management platform built for CFOs and finance leaders who need reliable, audit-ready data and intuitive workflows, without the hidden fees or unreliable support. Switch in as little as 5 days and get 25% off your first year: https://pulley.com/mostlymetricsMetronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com—#MostlyGrowthPodcast #ProductMarketFit #BrianBalfour #StartupStrategy #Reforge

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