2021-09-12T03:41:49+03:00[Europe/Moscow] en true <p>Many investors give startup entrepreneurs this terrible piece of advice: <em>“</em><strong><em>Your ideas are too small. You need to think bigger &amp; go after a larger market.</em></strong><em> Otherwise you’re not worth my time or money. We only want to invest in entrepreneurs who are changing the world &amp; doing something REALLY BIG.”</em></p>, <p>Most startups build crappy initial products for a small audience of users or customers, and the product is usually so terrible at first that it *BARELY* solves the problem, and is hardly better than nothing at all.</p>, <p>Most founders think they have to be <strong>AWESOME</strong> for <strong>EVERYONE</strong> to succeed. In reality, they only need to be BARELY FUNCTIONAL and BETTER THAN ALTERNATIVES for a SMALL AUDIENCE, long enough to survive until next sunrise. Then they can gradually iterate &amp; improve.</p>, <p>In fact it’s a bit counter-intuitive, but <strong>the crappier you are but can still find <u>Minimum Viable Product</u> success... </strong></p>, <p>Ultimately, if you *do* want to become a bigger company, you’ll have to grow your market, change your product offering, &amp; compete in multiple customer segments against those big incumbents — but in the first few months of existence, your job is simply to establish a foothold, to get an initial MVP out the door, and SURVIVE.</p> flashcards
Dave McClure: Niche to win

Dave McClure: Niche to win

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  • Many investors give startup entrepreneurs this terrible piece of advice: “Your ideas are too small. You need to think bigger & go after a larger market. Otherwise you’re not worth my time or money. We only want to invest in entrepreneurs who are changing the world & doing something REALLY BIG.”

    What a load of horse shit. That’s the WORST suggestion for a startup just getting started, when it hasn’t quite figured out product/market fit yet.

    Yahoo and Google both started out as simple interfaces with a directory or index of web pages that <1% of people on the planet cared about.

    Facebook started out with pictures of college students who Mark Zuckerberg wanted to try and get a date with.

    Twitter started out as a stupidly simple notification app that posted 140-char status updates to a very small audience of geeky people. Most of them didn’t know why or what to do with it.

    Uber started out with a crappy mobile app connecting a small number of San Francisco nerds with a few taxi drivers who weren’t total alcoholics.

  • Most startups build crappy initial products for a small audience of users or customers, and the product is usually so terrible at first that it *BARELY* solves the problem, and is hardly better than nothing at all.

    In fact most startups can be incredibly mediocre & still be very successful.(sounds so inspirational, right? i know, but stick with me for a minute…)

    But that’s exactly the point: If it’s crappy but still works and/or is useful, that’s a great sign… that means there could be a lot more potential ahead.

  • Most founders think they have to be AWESOME for EVERYONE to succeed. In reality, they only need to be BARELY FUNCTIONAL and BETTER THAN ALTERNATIVES for a SMALL AUDIENCE, long enough to survive until next sunrise. Then they can gradually iterate & improve.

    The secret is to find your Niche — that initial <customer segmentation + product differentiation> combo that enables you to just barely beat your more established, mature competition with a much crappier product.

    This strategy is called “Niche to Win”.

  • In fact it’s a bit counter-intuitive, but the crappier you are but can still find Minimum Viable Product success...

    ...the quicker and better you’ll be at identifying initial customer-problem opportunities that create the possibility your still-tiny startup can stay alive & iterate one more day.

  • Ultimately, if you *do* want to become a bigger company, you’ll have to grow your market, change your product offering, & compete in multiple customer segments against those big incumbents — but in the first few months of existence, your job is simply to establish a foothold, to get an initial MVP out the door, and SURVIVE.

    If that’s the goal, then focusing on a big, world-changing vision is EXACTLY the WRONG thing to do. Instead, narrow your field of view, find a very targeted demographic, and build a simple, crappy, focused solution that barely works, just well enough for that customer to pay for.

    so in the slightly paraphrased words of Al Davis: “Just Niche to Win, Baby.”