A Thought Experiment on Product and Company Market Fit
What if a CEO thought about their company as the product, and their industry too?
A Thought Experiment on Product and Company Market Fit for SaaS CEOs.
CEOs are focused on building and selling their SaaS products. They are consumed with trying hard to get customers to like it and ensure it ships on time. They may even be experienced product leaders and know enough to start with the problem. To then work hard to develop a novel solution customers love.
To their investors, VC & Private Equity (PE), their company is the product. Investors are often more concerned and aware of market dynamics, competitors, and trends that can hurt or help their “product.”
Going up a level to Governments. They see industries as products to develop their country and solve some fundamental problems, such as energy shortages, immigration attractiveness, and aging populations. You can see this in the Middle East as they seek to attract millions of immigrants through importing and creating sports industries from scratch.
Does it benefit a CEO to not just be fanatical about product market fit but think like an investor or country? To see their company as a product and their industry as a product? If company CEOs did this thought experiment, how would their behaviors change? They would likely become much more aligned in their thinking with their investors and more likely to pick a strong market with attractive properties.
Let’s do the thought experiment for them:
Comparison Table
Thinking about Industry Country Fit, Company Market Fit & Product Market Fit
Definitions
Product Market Fit is building a unique superior solution to solve a valuable pain point. It needs a common set of customers, that are willing to pay for it, in quantities and prices that sustains the business (profitable).
Company Market Fit means your business is recognized as the leading solution provider in your ecosystem and is integrated with your customers' key systems & partners.
Industry Country Fit means the selected industry is on a government’s strategic priority agenda and tax and incentives to innovate are attractive and the industry is set for fast growth.
Reviewing the table above, should lead a CEO to a reconsider how a product and company is developed and maybe the industry they select. Below is a simple guide CEOs could follow. Allowing them to try and achieve Company Market Fit at the same time as they are building to Product Market Fit:
Strategic Plan for Achieving Company Market Fit:
Understand the Ecosystem:
Map out the key players in the ecosystem (users, suppliers, partners, media, events, competitors).
Identify potential partnerships and integration opportunities.
Enhance Product Integrability:
Ensure your product or service can be easily integrated with popular platforms and tools.
Develop and document APIs for seamless integration.
Leverage No Code Tools:
Enable customers to integrate your service using no code tools like Zapier.
Provide tutorials and support for using these tools and your services.
Network and Partnerships:
Build relationships with key players in the ecosystem.
Seek out strategic partnerships that enhance your value proposition.
Regularly review and expand your network.
Market Presence and Awareness:
Participate in industry events, webinars, and panels.
Publish thought leadership content and case studies.
Apply for industry awards and recognitions.
Customer-Centric Approach:
Engage with customers to understand their broader needs and how your product fits into their workflow.
Develop features and services that address these broader needs.
Monitor and Measure:
Track the number and quality of integrations and partnerships.
Collect feedback from customers and partners to assess the value of integrations.
Monitor market trends and adjust ecosystem strategies accordingly.
Metrics to Measure Progress:
Number of technical integrations.
Importance and usage of partnership channels.
Customer satisfaction and feedback on integrations.
Market presence indicators (awards, speaking engagements, published content).
Growth in network and strategic relationships.
Conclusion
Company Market Fit is: Maximizing the value of the ecosystem surrounding your business to gain most-favored-nation status for your specific solution. If you follow it as a strategy, everything you do in achieving product market fit will be more sustainable and secure and get easier over time. And the value of your hard work protected. Any exit sale or investment will include high interest from Strategic buyers at attractive multiples. If you are also able to consider Industry Country Fit, you may well innovate into a sweet spot of government need and focus, giving you a huge amount of wind in your sails, or put you in the fast moving water, to quote NFX.
Sources:
Lee Arthur Company Market Fit:
https://leearthur.substack.com/p/product-market-fit-is-no-longer-enough
Barrons: Slack accuses Microsoft of illegally tying Teams to Office in EU complaint
QuickBooks: Intuit QuickBooks
Stripe: Stripe
Zapier: Zapier