Superhuman asked users how they'd feel if they could no longer use the product. Only 22% said 'very disappointed' at first. By segmenting users and building for its fans, Rahul Vohra lifted that to 58% within about three quarters. Superhuman reached an $825 million valuation in 2021. Grammarly announced it was acquiring it on 1 July 2025, then renamed the whole company Superhuman in October 2025, as Reuters and VICE reported.
Key takeaways
- Superhuman's 'very disappointed' score went from 22% to 33% after segmenting, then 58% within about three quarters.
- It was valued at $825 million in 2021 and had about $35 million in annual revenue when Grammarly announced the deal in July 2025.
- Grammarly renamed its company Superhuman in October 2025, keeping Grammarly, Coda and Superhuman Mail as products.
- Product/market fit with a passionate niche builds a valuable business. It doesn't always beat platform giants.
- Know whether your end game is standalone scale or becoming the best piece of someone else's bundle.
It was 2017, and Rahul Vohra had a problem he couldn't name.
He and his engineers had been building Superhuman, "the fastest email experience in the world," since 2015. Two years of work. And they still hadn't launched.
Rahul could feel that something wasn't right. Then he found a line on Marc Andreessen's blog that described it perfectly: "You can always feel when product/market fit is not happening."
Everyone had advice on how to know you had fit after launch. Nobody told you how to measure it before.
So Rahul built his own way. And it worked so well that a much bigger company eventually bought him, then took his product's name.
What the book said in 2022
In Chapter Ten I walked through Rahul's survey. Four questions, sent to every pre-launch user:
- How would you feel if you could no longer use Superhuman? (Very disappointed / Somewhat disappointed / Not disappointed)
- What type of people do you think would most benefit from Superhuman?
- What is the main benefit you receive from Superhuman?
- How can we improve Superhuman for you?
The first result was disheartening. Only 22% said "very disappointed."
Rahul then followed three steps:
- Find your supporters and build a persona of your high-expectation customers.
- Figure out why people love the product. Double down on what fans adore, and fix what holds the fence-sitters back.
- Measure, repeat, succeed. Track the score and keep going.
The book noted Superhuman's $825 million valuation.
What's happened since
The score. Rahul's own account in First Round Review gives the full progression. Just by segmenting and focusing on the users who fit best, the score rose from 22% to 33%. Within about three quarters of product work, it nearly doubled to 58%.
The sale. On 1 July 2025 Grammarly announced it was acquiring Superhuman. Terms weren't disclosed. (The figures below are as reported by Reuters.)
| Superhuman at the time of the deal | |
|---|---|
| Last valuation | $825 million (2021) |
| Money raised | More than $110 million (investors included IVP and Andreessen Horowitz) |
| Annual revenue | About $35 million |
| People joining Grammarly | Rahul Vohra and more than 100 staff |
Grammarly was the bigger fish by far: more than 40 million daily users and more than $700 million in revenue. It had bought Coda in 2024. Its goal was an AI productivity suite across email, documents and AI agents.
The twist. In October 2025, VICE reported, Grammarly changed its company name to Superhuman. Grammarly carries on as a product, alongside Coda, Superhuman Mail and an AI assistant called Superhuman Go.
So the email app with $35 million in revenue gave its name to a company with more than $700 million.
Score your own product/market fit
Run the Superhuman-style 'very disappointed' survey and score it with the free Product/Market Fit Survey Scorer.
Why did it end in an acquisition?
Here's my read.
Superhuman's method worked. It built a loyal user base willing to pay a premium for speed. That's real product/market fit.
But look at who owns email. Google and Microsoft. Both were adding AI to their own inboxes. A premium standalone email app was up against AI features bundled into the inboxes everyone already used.
In MOATS terms, Superhuman was strong on Audience (passionate users) but weak on Switching. Leaving it meant going back to Gmail or Outlook, which you already had. Our guide to building a moat covers all five factors.
Inside a bigger suite, the same product becomes much more valuable. It's one more reason in a bundle to stay, and the suite puts it in front of far more people than a standalone app could reach. That's the logic of packaging: a strong product can be worth more as part of a bundle than on its own.
Did the PMF engine fail?
No. It did exactly what it promised: it told Superhuman who loved the product and how to make more people love it.
What it can't tell you is whether your market is big enough, or whether a giant can give away what you charge for. Those are separate questions. Product/market fit is necessary. It isn't sufficient.
My take
I still rate Rahul's survey above almost any other product/market fit tool, because it turns a vague feeling into a number you can move. The lesson from 2025 is to run a second exercise alongside it: list everyone who could bundle what you sell. They're either your biggest threat or your best buyer.
What you can steal
- Run the survey every quarter. Use our ready-to-copy Sean Ellis PMF survey template, then score the answers with the Product/Market Fit Survey Scorer. Read about the 40% benchmark.
- Segment before you despair. Superhuman got from 22% to 33% just by focusing on the right users. Your score for your best-fit customers may already be higher than you think.
- Charge your fans a premium. Build for the people who'd be "very disappointed" and price for them. Chasing everyone dilutes the product. Our guide to willingness to pay shows how to find the number.
- Map who could bundle you. Write down the bigger companies whose customers overlap with yours. Then decide: compete, partner or sell.
- Feed the open-ended answers into analysis. The Customer Pain-Point Analyser will group question 3 and 4 answers into themes.
How would your customers feel if they could no longer use your service? Have you asked them?
Product/Market Fit Survey ScorerRun the Sean Ellis test and score it.Open the free tool →Frequently asked questions
What are the four questions in the Superhuman survey?
1. How would you feel if you could no longer use the product? (Very disappointed, somewhat disappointed, not disappointed.) 2. What type of people do you think would most benefit from it? 3. What is the main benefit you receive from it? 4. How can we improve it for you? The first question is the Sean Ellis test; the other three tell you what to do about the answer.
What score means you have product/market fit?
The widely used benchmark, from growth marketer Sean Ellis, is 40% of users answering 'very disappointed.' Superhuman started at 22%, reached 33% just by focusing on its best-fit segment, and hit 58% after about three quarters of product work. Treat 40% as a guide, and watch the trend quarter by quarter.
How much did Grammarly pay for Superhuman?
The terms weren't disclosed. Reuters reported that Superhuman had last been valued at $825 million in 2021, had raised more than $110 million and had about $35 million in annual revenue. Rahul Vohra and more than 100 staff joined Grammarly.
Why did Grammarly rename itself Superhuman?
In October 2025 Grammarly changed its company name to Superhuman while keeping Grammarly as a product. The company now sits over several products, including Grammarly, Coda, Superhuman Mail and an AI assistant called Superhuman Go. The name of the acquired product became the name of the whole suite.
Can a small business use the Superhuman method?
Yes, and it costs nothing. Send the four questions to your customers or members by email. Group the answers by customer type, find the group most likely to say 'very disappointed', and build more of what they value. A gym, an accounting firm or a subscription box can all run it in an afternoon.
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Robert Coorey, MBA
Robert is the author of The Subscription Playbook and Feed a Starving Crowd and a Director at BPAG Accountants in Sydney. More about Robert.
Sources
- First Round Review, How Superhuman built an engine to find product/market fit
- Reuters via Cyprus Mail, Grammarly eyes inbox dominance with Superhuman deal (7 Jul 2025)
- DestinationCRM, Grammarly to Acquire Superhuman (Jul 2025)
- VICE, Grammarly changes its company name to Superhuman (30 Oct 2025)
Facts and prices checked 27 October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.