Lancelet

Lancelets are fishlike creatures that represent the ancestral body plan from which all vertebrates (including hagfish) evolved. They have a notochord (primitive backbone), nerve cord, and gill slits - the defining chordate features - but no brain, no eyes, no skeleton, and no fins. They're the minimum viable chordate, persisting for 500 million years while their descendants evolved into fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.

Lancelets survive through simplicity. They burrow in sand and filter-feed, requiring minimal energy expenditure. Their lack of complex organs means lower metabolic costs. They reproduce through simple broadcast spawning. Every system is reduced to minimal function. This simplicity has proven remarkably durable - lancelets have outlasted countless more complex species.

For business, lancelets represent minimum viable business models that persist through simplicity. While competitors add features, staff, and complexity, the lancelet business maintains essential functions only. This reduces cost, reduces failure points, and maintains flexibility. Lancelets didn't compete with fish on speed or with sharks on predation - they competed on persistence through parsimony. Some businesses succeed not by doing more than competitors but by doing the minimum necessary to survive.