However,in some industries, the relationship isn’t quite as straightforward. I work in biotech, so in my case the market is realistically not going to be part of the story until we have a drug, which will be a long time from now. Until then our “market” is pharma partnerships or financing opportunities, both of which are only partially rational exercises in value determination. For us, lots of money is helpful to weather the storm and really build a great technology. There’s also little risk that if we treat a disease, we won’t have people want the treatment, so product market fit isn’t quite the same issue.
That said, it’s easy to lose focus by forgetting that the tech isn’t the point (finding a good drug is) and that we can’t try all options. But those are in our control.