European Startups Grapple With Post-Product-Market-Fit Scaling Decisions

European Startups Grapple With Post-Product-Market-Fit Scaling Decisions

European founders who've achieved product-market fit are discovering that the next phase—turning early traction into sustainable growth—requires fundamentally different decision-making around pricing, customer feedback, and revenue models, according to a panel discussion hosted by Sifted on February 24.

The conversation, which brought together executives from Stripe, Dawn Capital, AI transcription firm Granola, and property technology company Dwelly, focused on the operational choices that determine whether startups scale efficiently or stall after initial success. For finance leaders evaluating vendor relationships or considering M&A targets, the discussion offers a window into how European tech companies are thinking about their growth trajectories in 2026.

"Is the value that you're providing customers something they're willing to pay for?" asked Henry Mason, partner at VC firm Dawn Capital, framing what he sees as the central question for post-PMF companies. "If I had a business where I give everyone a dollar every day, users would love it, but it's not going to work for me as a business. That is where some founders haven't stress-tested the economics of their model."

The panel identified several signals that indicate genuine product-market fit beyond vanity metrics. Shreman Shrestha, head of business at Granola, pointed to "seeing product adoption really grow" across the market as a key indicator, along with internal sales teams recognizing traction. More telling, he said, is when "internal users are actually egging on the procurement team to get a tool or product finished as soon as possible"—a sign that resonates with CFOs familiar with bottom-up software adoption patterns.

Helen Lee, product marketing manager at payments processor Stripe, emphasized the role of usage data in understanding customer value. "What our clients are doing is collecting data on how their end users are using Stripe products," she said. "What we found is that data becomes very powerful in telling our clients what their customers care about and where they're getting value from."

The discussion highlighted a tension familiar to finance executives: the gap between user enthusiasm and economic viability. Mason's point about stress-testing business model economics echoes concerns many CFOs have raised about AI and software vendors whose unit economics remain unclear despite impressive user growth.

Dan Lifshits, cofounder of property technology firm Dwelly, stressed that integrating customer feedback should be "one of the core principles of any company," though the panel discussion ended before elaborating on specific implementation strategies.

The conversation reflects broader questions about how European startups will navigate scaling in 2026, particularly as venture capital remains selective and CFOs demand clearer paths to profitability from their technology vendors. For finance leaders, the panel's focus on economic validation over pure growth metrics suggests a maturing European tech ecosystem—one where the post-PMF playbook increasingly resembles traditional business fundamentals rather than growth-at-all-costs strategies.

The timing is notable: as finance teams prepare their 2026 technology budgets, understanding how vendors think about pricing design and revenue model evolution becomes critical due diligence. A startup that hasn't "stress-tested the economics," as Mason put it, may not survive long enough to support multi-year enterprise contracts.