10 years ago I had a printout of the top 10 reasons why technology startups fail pinned to the notice board in my office.
If you look at the same list of top 10 reasons why technology startups fail today – you can get Chat-GPT to synthesise one if you like – the top reason in that list remains the same.
It’s product-market fit. The thing that kills businesses – not just technology businesses – is always product-market fit, it always has been product-market fit, it always will be product-market fit.
Even the other reasons in that top-ten list, they all relate to product-market fit. For example, “ran out of money” – well, you ran out of money before you FOUND product-market fit.
Product-market fit at it’s core means “no one wants it”, or more probably “no one wants it the way that you’re selling it”. Product-market fit is oxygen – if you can work out how to actually frame and position what you’re offer is, you’re golden.