Defining product-market fit

Product-market fit means your product satisfies a strong market need so well that customers can't imagine going back to their old solutions. Marc Andreessen famously described it as being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.^[1] When you achieve it, everything feels easier: sales cycles shorten, customer acquisition costs drop, and word-of-mouth spreads naturally.

The concept originated from Andy Rachleff, who observed that the market pulls the product out of startups rather than startups pushing products into markets. Product-market fit isn't binary but exists on a spectrum. Early indicators include organic growth without marketing spend, customers urgently needing your solution, and users creating workarounds when your product is unavailable. Remember that fit can vary by segment: what works perfectly for one user group might fail for another.