Picking a Wedge - By Lenny Rachitsky - Lenny's Newsletter

“The wedge metaphor to me is most useful in making sure you’re not a blunt instrument trying to chop into a market by being everything for everyone, but instead the sharp blade with extraordinary focus on a specific persona/use case to start.”

A wedge is simply a strategy to win a large market by initially capturing (1) a tiny part of a larger market or (2) a large part of a small adjacent market.

A wedge is simply a strategy to win a large market by initially capturing (1) a tiny part of a larger market or (2) a large part of a small adjacent market.

A wedge seems most essential when you’re going after a market that is (1) entrenched or (2) crowded. When it’s hard to break in head-on.

A wedge gives a startup a number of advantages over its competition—primarily driven by having a narrower, more precise focus: 1) With a more focused value prop, your pitch and sales process become quicker and easier, which drives more revenue that you can reinvest in growth and the product 2) With more customers, you can more quickly build social ... See more

To pick a wedge, find a large market and then:

1. Pick a very narrow (and very painful) problem


2. Pick a very specific segment of people to solve that problem for

The more entrenched and competitive the market, the more valuable a wedge will be.

To pick a wedge, find a large market and then:1. Pick a very narrow (and very painful) problem2. Pick a very specific segment of people to solve that problem for