Ignite VC: How to Build and Scale B2B SaaS Startups in 2026 with Arun Penmetsa | Ep263

Episode notes

Most founders think product-market fit is about traction. Revenue, growth rate, number of customers. That’s not how Arun Penmetsa sees it. After more than a decade investing at Storm Ventures—and years building inside Oracle and Google—his view is simpler and stricter: if your product isn’t solving an urgent problem, nothing else matters. This conversation breaks down how strong enterprise companies actually get built, why most teams stall after early traction, and what investors really pay attention to when deciding who to back. Product-Market Fit Starts With Urgency Founders often point to metrics to prove they’ve hit product-market fit. Arun looks at something else first. Do customers need this now? If the answer is no, you’ll see the symptoms: * Long sales cycles * Endless pilots * Budget delays * Low conversion You might still close deals, but growth won’t compound. The goal is to find problems that sit at the top of a buyer’s priority list. The kind that forces action, not consideration. A useful test: if your product disappeared tomorrow, would your customer scramble to replace it? If not, you’re early.