Product/market fit
By Dave Whittemore · Updated
What is Product/market fit?
Rachleff's term, popularized by Andreessen: the market matters more than team or product — in a great market the market pulls the product out of the startup. Observable in retention curves that flatten, organic demand, and sales cycles that shorten on their own.
How Product/market fit works
PMF is the moment the core loop starts turning without being pushed. Before it, scale is premature and moats cannot form; after it, every GTM choice compounds.
The question to ask of a company
Do retention cohorts flatten at a meaningful level? Is demand exceeding what the firm can serve, or being manufactured by spend?
Examples
- Superhuman's 'very disappointed' survey (40% threshold) as an operational test.
- Reforge's retention-curve definition.
Who names it
| Author | What they call it / where it appears |
|---|---|
| Rachleff + | Product/market fit |
| Moore + | The early market working before the chasm |