Article · About 8 minute read

Understanding Unit Economics: The Bridge Between Product-Market Fit and Go-to-Market Fit

Brent Holloway · Stage 2 Capital Free Intermediate

This piece answers the sequencing question head on: it places unit economics right at the handoff between reaching product-market fit and figuring out how to sell repeatably. Written by an investor who lives in the go-to-market stage, it makes the case that unit economics is not a pre-PMF concern, but it becomes the thing that decides whether your growth is worth scaling once retention shows the product is working. It is a clear map of what to prove, and in what order.

• Prove that people want and keep using the product first, then get serious about unit economics: the article frames it as the bridge from PMF to a repeatable go-to-market model.
• Once retention holds, metrics like CAC payback and LTV to CAC are what tell you whether growth is sustainable or just expensive.
• Skipping the economics step is a common founder mistake: if the per-customer math is broken, growing bigger usually makes the losses bigger, not the business healthier.