Hey, Builders!
In this week’s edition of The PMF Playbook, we dive deep and unpack a conversation I had with Abby Kearns (former CTO at Puppet) and her thoughts on product market fit.
Abby’s journey is a blueprint in reinvention from leading one of the earliest infrastructure-as-code pioneers to betting on AI-powered marketing intelligence. It’s a masterclass in staying hungry, disrupting yourself, and keeping pace with change.
Here are the key lessons founders (and builders) can take on the road to PMF.
Product-Market Fit Isn’t Forever
Abby dropped one of the most powerful truths:
“You may have product-market fit this year - that doesn’t mean you’ll have it next year.”
The founders who win aren’t the ones who find PMF - they’re the ones who redefine it again and again. In a world where eight-year tech cycles have become eight months, the ability to question your own success is the new superpower.
Puppet and the Innovator’s Dilemma
When Abby joined Puppet in 2020, it was already a household name in infrastructure automation but the world had moved to containers and cloud-native architectures.
“Times change, technologies change, buyers change. Puppet struggled to adapt fast enough.”
Her north star? Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma.
“You have to be comfortable disrupting yourself even if your product is still growing.”
The PMF play here: never fall in love with your product. Fall in love with your customer’s evolving problem.
From Infrastructure to Insight: Building Alembic
At Alembic, Abby was building a marketing intelligence platform that distills huge, messy datasets into causal insights helping Fortune 500s see which campaigns actually move the needle.
“We take massive amounts of data and distill intelligence - causality, not just correlation.”
Alembic’s mission is to make data actionable for marketers without requiring them to know what questions to ask.
The founder lesson: simplify the complex - the bigger the data, the clearer your product should make the story.
The People Puzzle
Abby’s seen every side of startup building and her biggest challenge hasn’t changed: the people.
“It’s always the people. You can build an amazing product, but if nobody knows about it, it doesn’t matter.”
Her hiring style? Unscripted but intentional.
“I hire for curiosity and attitude over perfect skill alignment.”
For founders, the PMF takeaway is simple: hire for will, not just skill. In the early days, the right generalist with grit beats the perfect specialist every time.
The Future of DevOps and AI
Abby predicts the DevOps role will look completely different within two years.
Between AI-driven troubleshooting, self-healing infrastructure, and automated provisioning, she sees a world where one engineer can manage thousands of instances but only if they keep learning.
“If you’re not already using AI tools to improve your workflow, you’re falling behind.”
The lesson for engineers and founders alike: curiosity compounds. Stay ahead by experimenting early and often.
Kill the Stealth Mode Myth
Abby’s take on stealth startups was refreshingly blunt:
“Unless you’re Beyoncé or Apple, don’t be in stealth. Get your product in front of users as fast as possible.”
Her reasoning? Feedback is oxygen. Stealth is starvation.
The PMF mindset: launch early, learn faster.
The Investor Lens: Betting on Moats, Not Buzzwords
As an angel investor, Abby stays in her lane - enterprise infra, dev tools, security, and AI automation.
Her filters are crisp:
Domain fit: Does she understand the customer?
Technical moat: Can someone clone this in five minutes?
Team conviction: Are they uniquely positioned to win?
“If you’re just calling the OpenAI API with a pretty UI, that’s not a moat.”
Founders - read that again.
Stay Hungry, Stay Humble
Her favorite book isn’t just a business classic - it’s a mindset:
“The Innovator’s Dilemma keeps you humble. The Innovator’s Solution keeps you hungry.”
Because even category leaders can get left behind (just ask Blockbuster).
The PMF truth: if you’re not thinking about how to disrupt yourself, someone else already is.
The PMF Takeaways
From Abby’s story, here’s your founder cheat sheet:
PMF isn’t permanent - keep evolving it.
Fall in love with the problem, not the product.
Build simple solutions for complex data.
Hire for curiosity and resilience.
Launch early, learn fast.
Invest where there’s a moat, not hype.
Stay humble, stay hungry.
Or as Abby puts it:
“Someone’s always building a better mousetrap. Keep building anyway.”
Until next time,
Firas Sozan
Your Cloud, Data & AI Search & Venture Partner
Find me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/firassozan/
Personal website: https://firassozan.com/
Company website: https://www.harrisonclarke.com/
Venture capital fund: https://harrisonclarkeventures.com/
‘Inside the Silicon Mind’ podcast: https://insidethesiliconmind.com/