Marc Andreessen is an American businessman and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser with a graphical user interface, and the co-founder of Netscape. But perhaps he’s best known as a co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. More recently he’s gained some notoriety as one of Donald Trump’s greatest supporters. Ah well, to each his own. There’s no accounting for taste! …. 

Many observers credit the term product-market fit to Andreessen and his VC firm. The concept is famously used by Silicon Valley venture capitalists like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. And their influence has been massive. Search for the term on GOOGLE as I did a few days before putting together this presentation, and you’ll see hundreds (or even thousands) of hits from would-be business consultants trying to cash in on their success. There are inevitably huge numbers of nifty illustrations, like the one displayed on this slide. The billion-dollar startups that venture capitalists want to invest in are exceedingly rare. For venture capitalists themselves, it makes sense to get picky when you’re trying to find unicorns, which are after all mythical creatures. Too often, business schools, government business ‘incubators’, and ‘startup’ business consultants tailor their workshops and course offerings to the largest third of Canada’s businesses. They’re also a little too fond of unicorns which, as I just said are really mythical creatures. At the Main Street Journal, we believe it’s important to understand the real needs of the smaller businesses that account for about 68% of private sector firms – when you’re trying to design and build programs and services that meet their specific needs. In other words we embrace the notion of ‘product-market-fit’. We believe that government policy makers, business incubators, business schools at college, and the largest professional service firms that dominate the legal and accounting professions don’t understand the importance of our smallest businesses. Or perhaps more accurately, they are too busy with their own self-interest to give a hoot about them.