Public markets reward predictability.

lacks necessary granularity to explain the context for a specific startup.

scale. Is the improvement enough to compel customers to change behavior? This leads us to a third step in defining a value proposition: after identifying customer pain points being addressed by our better/faster/cheaper solution, we need to quantify the value that we are creating.

Once you pay your Costco or Sam’s Club annual fee, you are somewhat locked into shopping at that outlet. Shopping elsewhere would create the perception that you wasted your membership fee. Amazon.com has invested very heavily in becoming a sticky product. One-click checkout, Prime membership, subscriptions and the dash button are all attempts to

In other words, we can use the competition’s customer adoption success as an indicator of our startup’s potential acceptance in the marketplace.

In Product/Market Fit, we addressed the question of value creation, or more generically, does the idea work? In Team/Industry Fit, we looked at the feasibility of creating the organization through which the idea could grow. The third area of inquiry is one of happiness, really: is it worth our investment? Can we achieve a vision for success?

capitalist. Two key elements were born at that moment: a free market for talent and the sharing of equity with that talent.

A competitive advantage, on the other hand, is a barrier to entry, something that will stop or slow down competitors who want to copy our differentiation. These are sometimes called “unfair advantages,”

Trade secrets are not limited to technology leads. They can also include ways that we operate our business that give us an advantage over competition. Our founding team, for example, may have core competencies that others simply cannot copy. Or we might have exclusive access to better, faster or cheaper suppliers. We may also have developed an