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MenuIndustry giants vs your startup Competing with established companies that are orders of magnitude larger can be daunting. How can you succeed?
I am working on an EdTech idea and weeks away from MVP. The problem I am trying to solve is student and industry gap by simply connecting students with industry professionals. But LinkedIn also working on student and professional relationship and they have advantage as they are the largest professional network. How can you compete with them? They have resources, tools , team and finance. I want to be entrepreneur and academia is something my interest and working on idea for some time.
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For a long time, Apple considered Apple TV to be a hobby, not a real product worth focusing on, because it did not generate a billion in revenue. However, for a start-up, getting to $50 million in revenue can be the start of a wildly successful business. But being a start-up affords many advantages most giants would salivate over. As a nimble start-up you can leverage those to succeed. It is hard to build a $10 billion revenue business doing just one thing, and most giants have a broad portfolio of businesses, numerous products for each, and targeting a variety of customer segments in multiple markets. There are a host of things you can do specifically because you do not have the same scale as the giants. The giants certainly could not.
You can read more here: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-to-compete-with-giants/
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
It would be very difficult if not impossible to compete head-on with a similar product.
But if you have something unique and truly meaningful then that differentiation and fulfillment of a user's need will help you get that initial momentum.
LinkedIn, Microsoft, Google... weren't built in a day. One step at a time.
Thinking about the competition is useful but thinking about the customer is equally important.
Start small, validate your product and who your customer is, then focus on scaling up.
If your product is valuable then customers will be prepared to pay for it, this will also help with funding and strategic partnerships.
In one of my companies, I built up a user base of over 100k users fairly quickly, it's not that difficult if you have something unique, focus on the customer first while being aware of the rest of the market.
Good luck!
Competing should not be the major concern or even a bother at all. the main target should be building your brand with unique features that are relevant to people. an industry giant has done a lot already, so competing with them wont be a good idea. the best approach is to move ahead by steadily improving your start up .
Hi. You may not appreciate it, but you probably have more advantages over enterprise competitors than you think! Focus on providing a more personalised service, be more responsive, leverage your specialist expertise and what-ever you can do to be different. Take your time and carve out your niche. Don't forget, your competitors will spend money to raise the profile of their solution which creates a wave of interest for you too. Place ads next to theirs. Create more impactful content than they do. Get exhibition space opposite their stand. Contact the bigger players and offer a complimentary service (you'll be doing them a favour!). Not everyone wants to engage with the global leaders, many people are looking for a specialist provider. Good luck!
Great question! Although the market may feel that it is saturated, in fact you are in a great spot. With the mass growth of the web and the shear amount of users, there are many opportunities to act as a niche player industries versus the big guys (Linkedin).
There are a couple of things that you need to keep in mind in order to be successful: Be the expert, stay small and nimble.
Use your specific sub-niche as a way to differentiate yourself. Ensure that your MVP does not feel generic and is targeted to your specific audience, this is how you will grow presence (as well as SEO clicks). Come off as the expert in your space; learn the industry and ensure that your MVP shows your knowledge.
Also, you mentioned that you are small, use that as an advantage. Be nimble. Be flexible. Learn from your customers and provide them a solution that fits their needs.
Related Questions
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How do you make money to survive while you are building a business? What are some quick ways to make money with less time commitment?
I love this question. If you have to work on the side while building your business, I recommend doing something you absolutely hate. That keeps you hungry to succeed on your own. You'll also typically save your energy for the evenings and weekends where you'll want it for your business. Don't expect to make much money at your "other job" but you can work it to pay the bills while you build your business. This approach also forces you to build incrementally, and it keeps you frugal. This is not necessarily ideal. Having a bunch of money set aside sounds nice and luxurious, but not having the resources puts you in a position where you have to figure it out to survive. I love that. I started my business eight years ago on $150 and today we do a million a year. Don't wait until you have the resources to start safely. Dive in however you can. And avoid shortcuts. Don't waste your time scheming to make bigger money on the side. Do something honest to live on and create a business that drives value.CM
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How much equity should I ask as a CMO in a startup?
Greater risk = greater equity. How likely is this to fail or just break even? If you aren't receiving salary yet are among 4-6 non-founders with equivalent sweat investment, all of whom are lower on the totem pole than the two founders, figure out: 1) Taking into account all likely outcomes, what is the most likely outcome in terms of exit? (ex: $10MM.) Keep in mind that 90%+ of all tech startups fail (Allmand Law study), and of those that succeed 88% of M&A deals are under $100MM. Startups that exit at $1B+ are so rare they are called "unicorns"... so don't count on that, no matter how exciting it feels right now. 2) Figure out what 1% equity would give you in terms of payout for the most likely exit. For example, a $10MM exit would give you $100k for every 1% you own. 3) Decide what the chance is that the startup will fail / go bankrupt / get stuck at a $1MM business with no exit in sight. (According to Allman Law's study, 10% stay in business - and far fewer than that actually exit). 4) Multiply the % chance of success by the likely outcome if successful. Now each 1% of equity is worth $10k. You could get lucky and have it be worth millions, or it could be worth nothing. (With the hypothetical numbers I'm giving here, including the odds, you are working for $10k per 1% equity received if the most likely exit is $10MM and the % chance of failure is 90%.) 5) Come up with a vesting path. Commit to one year, get X equity at the end. If you were salaried, the path would be more like 4 years, but since it's free you deserve instant equity as long as you follow through for a reasonable period of time. 6) Assuming you get agreement in writing from the founders, what amount of $ would you take in exchange for 12 months of free work? Now multiply that by 2 to factor in the fact that the payout would be far down the road, and that there is risk. 7) What percentage share of equity would you need in order to equal that payout on exit? 8) Multiply that number by 2-3x to account for likely dilution over time. 9) If the founders aren't willing to give you that much equity in writing, then it's time to move on! If they are, then decide whether you're willing to take the risk in exchange for potentially big rewards (and of course, potentially empty pockets). It's a fascinating topic with a lot of speculation involved, so if you want to discuss in depth, set up a call with me on Clarity. Hope that helps!RD
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What is the average series A funding round at pre revenue valuation for a enterprise start up w/cutting edge tech on verge of our first client.
With all respect to Dan, I'm not seeing anything like that. You said "pre-revenue." If it's pre-revenue and enterprise, you don't have anything proven yet. You would have to have an insanely interesting story with a group of founders and execs on board with ridiculous competitive advantage built in. I have seen a few of those companies. It's more like $3m-$5m pre. Now, post-revenue is different. I've seen enterprise plays with $500k-$1m revenue/yr, still very early (because in the enterprise space that's not a lot of customers yet), getting $8m-$15m post in an A-round. I do agree there's no "average." Finally, you will hit the Series A Crunch issue, which is that for every company like yours with "cutting edge tech" as-yet-unproven, there's 10 which also have cutting edge tech except they have customers, revenue, etc.. So in this case, it's not a matter of valuation, but a matter of getting funded at all!JC
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How has Uber grown so fast?
Obviously, they do the fundamentals well. Good brand. Good experience. Good word of mouth. Good PR. Etc. Etc. But after my interview with Ryan Graves, the head of Global Operations at Uber (https://www.growthhacker.tv/ryan-graves), it became clear that they are operationally advanced and this is a huge part of their success. I'll explain. Uber isn't just a single startup, it's essentially dozens of startups rolled into one because every time they enter a new city they have to establish themselves from essentially nothing (except whatever brand equity has reached the city ahead of them). This means finding/training drivers, marketing to consumers, and building out local staff to manage operations for that city. This is where Ryan Graves comes in. He has a protocol of everything that must be done, and in what order, and by who, to ensure the best chance of success in a new city. So how has Uber grown so fast? Essentially, they figured out how to grow in one locale and were relentless about refining their launch process to recreate that initial success over and over in new cities. No plan works for every city, and they've had to adapt in many situations, but it is still a driving factor for their success.BT
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How was SnapChat able to grow so quickly?
I'm answering your question assuming that you hope to be able to replicate it's own success in your own mobile app. There are a couple of factors responsible for it's growth that are instructive to anyone building a mobile app. "Leveraging the intimacy and privacy of the mobile phone." We now have an *intimate* relationship with our phone like no other device in the history of technology. Every internet company that started before around 2010 has built their core interactions around "the old web" one which was accessed primarily via a browser on a computer. Companies that start with a clean slate, should be building their interactions around how to do whatever the app is supposed to do while leveraging what is unique to people's relationship to their mobile devices. Photo-sharing has become a core part of the way we communicate now. Snapchat built something that provided an experience that leveraged the feeling of privacy and intimacy that is unique to mobile. "Provided an escape from the "maturity" of other online services." Too many parents, aunts, uncles and other "old people" have encroached into the social networks of teens and young people. As a result, they've had a desire to find places to express themselves in places inaccessible by older generations. An important distinction is that it's not just parents and relatives that young people are trying to avoid, but also employers & colleges who are increasingly using "mature" social networks to review applicants. "Leveraged PR even bad PR" The fact that the app got so much press about it being used to sext was perfect PR for the company, as it essentially reinforced the brand experience that it has today. Essentially, "if it's safe enough to send a sext, it's safe for any kind of communication I want to have." And although the safety and security of Snapchat is actually not as advertised, it still enjoys the reputation of having less impact than any primarily web-based service. Building a successful mobile application is one of the hardest challenges to face designers, programmers and entrepreneurs in the history of writing software. Happy to talk to you if you're considering building a mobile app, about what I've learned about the "table stakes" for success.TW
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