---
title: Geoffrey Moore — who he is | RGM® Glossary
url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/glossary/geoffrey-moore/
updated: 2026-06-10
source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/glossary/geoffrey-moore/
---

# Geoffrey Moore

/ˈdʒɛfɹi mʊɹ/proper noun

Early adopters love you, the mainstream ignores you — Moore named the gap and drew the bridge.

Name
:   Geoffrey A. Moore

Born
:   1946

Key work
:   Crossing the Chasm (1991)

Framework
:   Beachhead / whole product

## Forms & parts of speech

the chasm · noun phrase

His gap in the adoption curve.

"We're in **the chasm** — visionaries bought, pragmatists won't return calls."

## Who he is, in plain terms

Geoffrey Moore is the former English professor turned Silicon Valley advisor who noticed that the classic technology-adoption curve hid a cliff. *Crossing the Chasm* (1991) showed that early adopters and the early majority buy for opposite reasons, so momentum with one predicts nothing with the other. Sequels *Inside the Tornado* (1995) and *Zone to Win* (2015) extended the map past the crossing.

## The key ideas

Visionaries buy change itself; pragmatists buy proven solutions from market leaders their peers already use — and the gap between them is the chasm where most tech products die; the crossing strategy is the beachhead — dominate one narrow niche completely (the D-Day analogy), because pragmatists reference only their own segment; deliver the whole product, everything the niche needs to get value, not just the core technology; and only after owning the beachhead do you expand to adjacent segments — the bowling-alley sequence.

## Why he still matters

"Niche down" is startup gospel because Moore proved the counterintuitive math — a smaller target market crosses faster than a bigger one. Every vertical-SaaS strategy, every "CRM for dental practices," every land-and-expand plan is the beachhead playbook. When a product has raving early users and flat mainstream sales, the diagnosis is on his map, and so is the cure.

**Worked example.** A dev-tools startup has passionate early adopters and stalled growth. The Moore diagnosis: chasm. The fix — pick fintech compliance teams as the beachhead, build the whole product for exactly them (the integrations, the audit reports, the case study with a name pragmatists recognize), and ignore every other segment for a year. References multiply inside the niche, the segment tips, and the bowling alley opens to adjacent regulated industries.

**Failure modes to watch.** Selling to pragmatists with visionary messaging about revolutionary change; spreading thin across segments instead of owning one beachhead; and shipping core technology while the niche waits for the whole product.

## Synonyms & antonyms

### Synonyms

Geoffrey Moorethe chasm

## Origin & history

Born 1946; literature PhD (University of Washington) and English professor before sales and consulting at Regis McKenna's firm, advising tech clients. The chasm insight came from watching client after client stall post-early-adopter; the book appeared in 1991 and has never left print.

Etymology: [source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Moore).

## Usage trends

Search interest for this term over the last five years:

[View interest-over-time on Google Trends →](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=crossing%20the%20chasm&date=today%205-y)

## Common questions

Who is Geoffrey Moore?
:   Author of Crossing the Chasm (1991) and advisor on technology market strategy — the man who mapped why tech products stall before the mainstream.

What is the chasm?
:   The gap between early adopters, who buy change, and the pragmatist early majority, who buy proven references — where most tech products die.

How do you cross the chasm?
:   Pick one beachhead niche, deliver the whole product it needs, win dominant references there, then expand to adjacent segments.

## Related tools & calculators

- tool[CAC calculator](/tools/cac-calculator/)
- tool[LTV-to-CAC ratio](/tools/ltv-to-cac-ratio-calculator/)

## Resources & people to follow

- book*Crossing the Chasm* — Geoffrey Moore
- book*Zone to Win* — Geoffrey Moore
- referenceGeoffreyAMoore.com

Curated, non-competitor resources verified per term.

## Related training

- module[Growth marketing foundations](/training/growth-marketing-foundations/)

## Disciplines

Areas of marketing where geoffrey moore is a core concern:

[Growth strategy](/training/growth-marketing-foundations/)[Analytics](/training/marketing-analytics/)

## Read next

## Related terms

[Crossing the chasm](/glossary/crossing-the-chasm/)[Category design](/glossary/category-design/)[Product-market fit](/glossary/product-market-fit/)[Steve Blank](/glossary/steve-blank/)[Brand positioning](/glossary/brand-positioning/)

## Sources

1. trends[Google Trends — "crossing the chasm"](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=crossing%20the%20chasm&date=today%205-y)