What does ‘jumping the shark’ mean?
Jumping the shark is American slang — originally a TV-criticism term from the 1977 episode of Happy Days in which Fonzie water-skis over a shark — describing the moment a brand, product or franchise has visibly peaked and begun a decline driven by desperate or absurd attempts to maintain attention.
In startups, jumping the shark often signals a pivot done out of desperation rather than learning: gimmicky launches, off-brand product extensions, paid-spend bursts without unit economics. Sophisticated investors read these signals as inflection-down rather than inflection-up.