Do Companies Need Founder-Market Fit in 2025?

But First…Cool, if Real

Panoramic displays get viewers to almost VR-level immersion, but with friends and without simulation sickness.

Scroll to the end of this newsletter to see if this is real.

Becoming Dauntless

Can you succeed in launching a product in an industry you know nothing about?

Founder–market fit is one of those annoying startup buzzwords that can actually mean something. It’s the idea that the founders are suited to solve a problem in a specific market because they came from that industry or experienced the problem being solved.

At Dauntless XR we have gone after industries we know well (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) and ones we don't (aviation). There are pros and cons to each:

• Pro: If you know the industry, you can make quick decisions and act faster.

• Con: You make assumptions and don’t ask enough, or the right questions.

Neither determines your company's fate, despite what VCs will tell you before passing on your Series A. This week, we conducted user interviews for our new pilot training app, Flight Deck. I don’t have a pilot’s license and never finished flight school, so we asked A LOT of questions and couldn’t move as fast. The upside to moving slow and asking questions: the end product has more longevity and scalability.

It’s not wrong to build what you know, but it can limit entrepreneurs to only go after industries in which you have deep expertise. Great innovation often comes from a crossroads of unexpected interests and skills. Remember: Brian Chesky started AirBnB with no background in hospitality, Elon isn't a rocket scientist, and Howard Schultz was never a barista before he founded Starbucks.

News You Need to Know About

• Unity Goes All-In on New Generative AI. Unity's 6.2 update gave us three main features: 1) Assistant - a chatbot in Unity to answer questions, generate code, etc.; 2) Generators - a feature to create 3D assets, textures, images, and sounds; 3) Inference Engine - allows you to run AI models locally. Have you tried any of these yet?

• Adobe Killed Aero. Does this herald the death of augmented reality? No. I know zero people who have used Aero. I don’t think AR is dead; Adobe is just deprecating a product because it’s not performing and there are better options on the market.

• BYU is licensing its CAVE technology: This category of tech is immersion without a headset. "CAVE" systems traditionally use projection on the inside of a dome to create the illusion of immersion. We've since seen curved LED displays get closer to offering this. Cosm found success using similar technology but with an experience-based business model (and partnering with the NFL), rather than selling the tech as a product to home builders or universities. Anyone interested can reach out to David Brown.

Saved on Socials

The posts, memes, job postings, and videos that caught my attention this week:

• If you work in tech and want to annoy your colleagues (Instagram)

• Your phone's GPS finds you using time (LinkedIn)

• Every morning on the way to daycare… (Instagram)

Recently Played >

What we listened to this week

• Do You Really Need a Co-Founder in 2025 (YouTube Podcast)

• American Gods 10th Anniversary Edition on Audiobook - because the news was too depressing to turn on this week.

Overheard on Slack

Enter the chat. What our devs are talking about…

• Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear a Toddler’s Size 5. - In case you were wondering what a clothing size a fully grown and very tolerant golden lab is, now you know.

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📸 This appears to be a real product created by MDS Displays, which specializes in curved LED screens for conferences and advertising. Maybe in a living room near you soon?