Most businesses don’t fail because of bad ideas or sloppy execution. They fail because they never achieve product-market fit—the elusive alignment between what a company offers and what the market actually wants. Without it, everything—technology, investment, even the business itself—is in jeopardy.

I learned this firsthand at a medtech startup early in my career. We solved a life-saving problem and generated plenty of enthusiasm, but sales and customers never followed. We didn’t have a clear framework for diagnosing why, and we paid the price.

As Marc Andreessen famously wrote: “You can always feel when product-market fit isn’t happening. The customers aren’t quite getting value, usage isn’t growing, the sales cycle takes too long, and deals never close.”

That was us.

Three Archetypes of Fit

Fast forward to today, and I find Sequoia Capital’s Arc Product-Market Fit Framework to be a solid tool because it clarifies why PMF looks and feels different in different contexts. The framework identifies three archetypes:

• Hair on Fire – Customers know they have an urgent problem and are desperate for a solution.
  
  

• Hard Fact – Customers accept the problem as an unchangeable fact of life.
  
  

• Future Vision – Customers may not recognize the problem at all, or assume it can’t be solved.
  
  

Our medtech company clearly sat in the Hard Fact category. The challenge wasn’t technology—it was belief. Customers had normalized the problem, and we underestimated how much education and persuasion were required to change minds.

Why Frameworks Matter

Looking back, this simple framework could have saved us time, money, and energy. Frameworks like Sequoia's don’t guarantee success, but they certainly force clarity. They help you name the type of problem you’re solving, anticipate obstacles, and craft strategies that match the terrain.

Too often, leaders skip this step. They charge ahead on instinct alone, only to discover too late that the market isn’t moving with them.

Product-market fit is one of the most critical inflection points any business will face. The feeling of it is unmistakable, but the path to it is rarely obvious. Using frameworks like Sequoia’s isn’t about adding jargon—it’s about equipping yourself to see your business and your customers more clearly.

Because in the end, the market will tell you if you have product-market fit. Frameworks give you the chance to find out first.