Strangler Fig

Strangler figs don't grow from the ground up - they grow from the canopy down. A seed germinates in the crown of a host tree, sends roots earthward along the host's trunk, and eventually encases and kills the host. The strangler ends up as a hollow tree, the host having rotted away inside. It achieved canopy position without ever solving the ground-up scaling problem.

This is infrastructure parasitism. The host tree spent decades solving hydraulic transport, structural engineering, and competition for light. The strangler fig appropriates all that infrastructure as scaffolding, then replaces it with its own structure. The host's investment becomes the strangler's runway to scale.

The strategy works because the strangler's final form is structurally independent. Once roots reach ground and the lattice trunk develops, the fig doesn't need the host anymore - it just needs the host to have existed long enough to provide the scaffold. The host's death is delayed obsolescence, not failure of the strategy.

The business insight is that scaffolding strategies can achieve scale without solving foundational problems. Companies that build on existing platforms, leverage existing distribution, or acquire existing customer bases are practicing strangler fig strategy. The platform provider (host tree) built the infrastructure; the entrant (strangler) uses it to achieve scale, then may eventually replace it. The question is whether the scaffolding survives long enough.