“It is the customer who determines what a business is.” — Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management The product is only the beginning, yet many startup CEO’s make the mistake of remaining glued to the product and its evolution, even in their post-Series B or C stages and with millions of users under their belt. Their problem is they haven’t been able to cross the chasm into business model evolution. I’ve already talked about the syndrome of the founding CEO who doesn’t appreciate marketing until much later because of their organic engineering or product focus. But there’s also the case of the founder who hasn’t been able to focus on a business model that is properly validated by the right business strategy. Fred Wilson wrote a post this morning highlighting the importance of the Product>Strategy>Model sequential process, and urging entrepreneurs to not rush into business model assumptions prior to locking down a clear strategy for the business. This prompted me to dust off a graphical evolution I had been working on to explain the importance of post- product/market fit in relation to the evolution of a startup’s journey towards sustainable scale. Sustainable scale will be a recurring theme in my writings because I believe it is not enough to start-up. You also need to scale-up, and anything in-between is the bridge to get you there. So, what happens after product/market fit and why getting to it is not enough is the focus of this post. You may also want to read Fred’s related post Revenue Traction Doesn’t Mean Product Market Fit.

FORGET THE PRODUCT, REMEMBER PETER DRUCKER

“It is the customer who determines what a business is. What the business thinks it produces is not of first importance; especially not to the future of the business and to its success. What the customer buys (or uses) and considers value is decisive, and it is NEVER a product. It is always utility, that is WHAT THE PRODUCT DOES FOR THEM.”