Product-Market Fit
Origin: Marc Andreessen / Don Valentine
The Biological Bridge
This business construct is human-invented, but the outcome it's trying to achieve has deep biological roots.
The Full Picture
Niche fit appears across vastly different lineages. Hummingbirds and the flowers they pollinate demonstrate co-evolved fit—bill length precisely matches flower corolla depth. In Lake Tanganyika, scale-eating cichlids evolved mouths that open only to the left or right, creating two distinct 'products' for the same 'market'. Woodpeckers achieved fit through stiff tail feathers, shock-absorbing skulls, and chisel-like beaks—an integrated toolkit for a bark-foraging niche no competitor can match. When traits match environmental demands precisely, organisms thrive; when mismatched, mortality rises 10x during resource scarcity.