Five with Fry
Five with Fry is your go-to podcast for understanding conflict—where it comes from, why it shows up, and how to handle it with clarity and intention. On each episode, Dr. Jen Fry breaks down the moments we avoid, the reactions we default to, and the skills it takes to move through conflict without blowing things up or shutting down.
Five with Fry
43: Cancel The Order, Keep The Check: The Nvidia Story
What if the difference between obscurity and breakout success is just one more shot on goal? We pull back the curtain on how companies actually find product-market fit, using NVIDIA’s lesser-known journey—from early misfires to a gutsy Sega contract pivot—as a clear-eyed case study in persistence, access, and timing.
We start by demystifying product-market fit with plain language and practical signals: real demand, strong retention, and customers who come back without paid pressure. From there, we trace NVIDIA’s six-year trek across three product lines and the architectural rethink that changed everything. The wild part isn’t the win; it’s the audacity to ask Sega to cancel a massive order and still fund the pivot. That move bought time, and time turned into learning, iteration, and eventually, traction. The takeaway isn’t to copy a headline-making stunt—it’s to build the credibility and clarity that make bold asks possible.
Along the way, we confront the hard truth about opportunity: access is uneven. More runway and stronger networks mean more attempts, and more attempts raise the odds of a hit. Instead of self-sabotaging with unfair comparisons, we offer a playbook for generating quality shots within your constraints: smaller scope tests, modular product choices, tighter customer feedback, and a rhythm of evidence-based pivots. If you feel one experiment away from a breakthrough, you might be right—but only if you keep moving and keep learning.
If this reframed your sense of progress, follow the show, share it with a founder who needs a push, and leave a review to help others find it. What’s the next shot you’re taking—and what bold ask will buy you the time to take it?
Friends, welcome to Five with Fry, where five is the magic number. Whether it's five minutes, five questions, or anything that fits in five. I dive into the big topics that matter, sometimes alone and other times with a friend. From navigating sports, conflict to family dynamics, travel, tech, hard-hitting issues, and even politics. Nothing, and I mean nothing's off the table. This is where curiosity meets conversation, and we always sit at an intersection. I'm your host, Dr. Jen Fry of Gen Fry Talks. Let's get into it. Hey friends, welcome to the news episode of Five with Fry. I'm your hostess with the most us, Dr. Jen Fry. And today we're going to talk about opportunity. We're going to talk about startups, entrepreneurship, all that stuff wrapped up in a bow. And the reason I say we're talking about opportunity, because many times when you see the company that goes for the IPO that's worth millions, billions, or trillions of dollars, you don't understand that sometimes that company had had to pivot quite a few times or had a few different opportunities to allow to keep them alive. And so I want us to kind of situate NVIDIA the chip. And so NVIDIA chips are graphic processing units. So this is what I guess we consider a successful company. But the thing about them is that it took them six years and three product lines to find product market fit. Six years and three product lines. And so when we talk about product market fit, it's the idea when you have a large enough group of customers, which lead to a high demand and strong customer retention. Product market fit is a thing as a startup you are trying to find because it means that money and customers are coming in. But when we talk about NVIDIA, the chip, people don't understand the opportunities that the CEO got to keep them alive. And so it's a fascinating story, which I heard on the Sequoia Capital podcast called Crucible Moments. Go over there and listen to all of the stories told by CEOs of top companies about that crucible moment in their company, do or die, they had to make a pivot. And so I like talk about NVIDIA because the opportunities that they had. So they had the very first chip, which they had raised money, the thing didn't work well. So then they raised more money, and then they create their second chip. And their second chip, they had a massive contract with Sega. But unfortunately, the chip wasn't doing as well as they thought it would. And they really had to pivot the architect architecture of the chip. So they could have just stopped making the chip and died out, or they could have done a very ballsy move, which they did, was to ask Sega if they could cancel Sega's massive order but still have their contract paid in full. What can you imagine going to your biggest contract and saying, hey, we want to pivot this architecture? What we're building really isn't working. But yet we want you to cancel the contract but still pay us out. And Sega did. It's really difficult. The second thing is that to really be able to do what you're going to do, you need to have multiple opportunities. Alex Harmozy talks about you have to have a lot of shots on goal. Sometimes when you're building your startup, you need to have a lot of shots on goal to figure out what's going to work. And that also means you need money and time. Many people who, if they just had one more shot on goal, would have had that company with product market fit worth billions, trillions, but they didn't get the opportunities. And I think the third thing is to understand that many times what you're seeing with that company that's making it big is not the whole story. And you're sitting there comparing your one opportunity against their many opportunities and their few really good pieces of luck. And you're getting down on yourself. And I just want to tell you don't get down on yourself. Because they've had a lot of shots on goals and a lot of opportunities to let them get to where they're at. And I hate to say it, sometimes you're not giving those same opportunities or those same shots on goal. And so we have to stop comparing ourselves to the people that get those opportunities and try and do as best as we can with what we have and figure out whatever we need to do to make it work. Because sometimes you're just one shot away from that phenomenal opportunity. And maybe you said, I just can't do it anymore. So I'm telling you, stop quitting on yourself. You're potentially one shot away. You got this, friends. You got it. Well, friends, that's it for this episode of Five with Fry. Your dose of five insights, ideas, and inspiration. If you love what you heard, don't forget to head over to where podcasts are played to subscribe, share, and leave a review. Got a topic you want us to tackle? Drop us a message. We'd love to hear from you. You can come follow me on IG, Twitter, the TikTok at Genfry Talks, or join me on LinkedIn. Look for me at Dr. Genfry. Until next time, stay curious, stay bold, and keep the conversation going. See you on the next Five with Fry.