The product-zeitgeist fit is a concept coined by D’arcy Coolican from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, the concept applies an extremely insightful and relevant twist on the traditional product-market fit. If you have ever been involved in an early-stage tech venture, it is almost certain that you have come across the term product-market fit. It relates to being in the right market with a product that can meet a specific problem attune to that particular market. To many, it is principally the initial step in validating a product’s viability. To some, the concept of a product-market fit is interchangeable with a minimum viable product. Yet countless minimum viable products have failed. While this can come down to other factors such as scalability, ultimately a product will always fall short if it does not meet the basic fundamentals of the product-zeitgeist fit. This is because it comes down to one key element, timing.
Bill Gross, the founder of Idealab, a start-up studio, carried out a personal experiment. He made a list of all the companies he had been personally involved in, categorised into failures and successes. Albeit using his own intuition, he augmented 5 essential elements for start-up success, the list was made up of the following.
- The Idea
- The Team
- The Business Plan
