if you don’t have a very specific enemy in your sights, you’re no where close to finding product market fit or growth.
bootstrapped = enemy must be company.
funded = enemy must be idea.
if you don’t have a very specific enemy in your sights, you’re no where close to finding product market fit or growth. bootstrapped = enemy must be company. funded = enemy must be idea.
You can be the best product for small market, build a real company, and then from a position of strength, either stay there or attempt to expand to adjacent markets.
Or be undistictive in a huge market, out-advertised and invisible, never getting off the ground.
“At both Viaweb and YC, every minute I spent thinking about competitors was, in retrospect, a minute wasted... It's exceptionally rare for startups to be killed by competitors — so rare that you can almost discount the possibility... Inexperienced founders usually give competitors more credit than they deserve. Whether you succeed depends far more
... See moreStartups often assume their better funded competitors are doing well, which leads to dogmatically chasing/copying #1 if you’re #2+
#2 tries to catch up to #1 by running the same way but faster. It’s often the case #1 is headed in the wrong direction, and now #2+ is too
1. Most founders are bad at growth, so if you're amazing at it, the advantage is significant.
Consider: Most startups die not because founders are bad or products suck, but because they couldn't figure out how to get anyone to try them.