── ── Startups
Product-Market Fit and Crossing the Chasm
Two distinct questions decide early-stage growth: (1) PMF — do enough users love the product they'd be very disappointed without it? (2) Chasm — can you move from early adopters (tolerate rough edges for novelty) into the early majority (need proven, complete, referenceable products)? Both failures look like "low growth" but differ in cause and cure.
Run Product-Market Fit and Crossing the Chasm on a real problem
Bring something you're actually deciding — free, in the browser.
How it works
Run the PMF + Chasm Audit. PMF first; chasm second.
When to use it
- user says "PMF," "product-market fit," "crossing the chasm," "early adopter to mainstream," "whole product," "we're stuck after our beachhead," or "growth stalled after an initial good period"
- startup has early traction but can't tell if it's real
- team is debating which segment to target next after winning early fans
When not to use it
the product has no users yet (use lean-startup instead); the business is already category-mature and the question is about scaling proven channels.
Worked example
AI Coding Assistants Crossing the Chasm (2023–2026)
A worked example applying the PMF + Chasm Audit to a category, not a single company: AI coding assistants and agents — GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and the broader wave of AI-native coding tools that emerged after ChatGPT (late 2022) and matured through 2025. The point is not to grade any one vendor but to show where the chasm sits for the whole category, and which whole-product gaps stall the crossing from visionary early adopters into a pragmatist mainstream.
Install this skill (free, MIT)
npx skills add deciqAI/knowledge-skillsUseful? Star the repo — stars help other builders find it.
Related mental models
Ramen profitability (Paul Graham) = the startup makes just enough to cover the founders' basic living costs.
A referral loop is a repeatable cycle where using the product produces new users: a happy customer is prompted, at the right moment, with the right…
Innovations spread on a sigmoid (S-shaped) curve: slow → accelerating → leveling off at saturation.
Every business follows an S-curve: slow start, steep growth, peak, then decline.