A lesson for startup founders in Trump’s ascent to the White House
An endless array of hypotheticals and scapegoats are being offered to explain how nearly 60 million voters elected a racist, misogynist, hot-tempered vulgarian with no experience or policy to the highest office of the most powerful country on earth. Hillary’s emails, the FBI letter, sexism, third-party candidates, #bernieorbust, low voter turnout, etc. just to name a few.
These are all symptoms.
There is one fundamental reason for Trump’s victory, and it is the same reason for Obama’s victory 8 years earlier. It is also the force behind every successful startup:
Product-Market Fit
Rather than questioning the significance of every misstep by Democrats, let’s look at the other side. How could a poorly executed campaign with less funds, no clear policy, no endorsements, no strategy, no ground-game, and an endless series of controversies including but not limited to pu**y-gate, attacks on minorities, women, POW’s and golden-star families, STILL manage to win?!
That’s because Trump had achieved the ever-elusive product-market fit.
What pain-point did he address? We don’t know yet. Was it the economy (not likely), xenophobia (perhaps), the desire for change, or something entirely different? At this point, all we know is that America’s most urgent pain-point was not the competence of the President, its foreign policy, or the election of the first woman president.
Trump stumbled upon his product-market fit, and capitalised on it. And here’s why he won regardless of his every misstep:
When you achieve product-market fit, the world becomes a forgiving place. Your margin for error increases and your success will no longer require a perfect execution.
How did he find it?
It is tempting to attribute Trump’s success to personal genius, or a detailed master-plan designed by a competent (if misguided) team. Just like conspiracy theories, such explanations comfort us by removing uncertainty and randomness from our world.
The truth is far from it.
When it comes to product-market fit, no amount of expert opinion, market analysis, or pre-planning will get you there. Analysts fit data to existing narratives. Successful entrepreneurs don’t discover market pain by reading reports; they go out there, try, and iterate.
Trump’s message was a new iteration of the earlier messages from the likes of Sarah Palin. This time, he got it right!
Fundamentals matter
If Hillary’s fundraising chops, savvy operatives, deep networks and systematic support could not help her overcome this challenge, it proves one thing:
