The Fits Work as a System

The four fits are not a checklist you clear one at a time. They form an interdependent ecosystem. Change one element and the others shift: raise your price and you change which channels you can afford, which changes what product shape works, which changes which market segment you serve.

This is Balfour's explanation for why $100M+ companies look inevitable in hindsight. It was never one brilliant growth tactic. Market, product, channel, and model clicked together and reinforced each other, so every dollar and every user compounded instead of leaking.

It also explains why bolting a tactic from another company onto your business so often does nothing. You imported one piece of someone else's system into a system it wasn't built for.