Why isn’t there a box for Competition on the Lean Canvas? Someone asked me this question recently, and it’s a good one. Understanding your competition is important, but ultimately it should have very little impact on what you do. For starters, your biggest competitor is likely not another company, but in fact the most difficult […]
Competitive Differentiation that Matters
How you differentiate from competitors only matters if it matters to customers. Pick any differentiation you want – pricing, features, target market, market gap, performance, etc. – unless customers really, really, really care about the difference, you’re shit out of luck. Hell, pick two or three of them and it still doesn’t matter. You can’t […]
Competitive Research 101 for Startups
Whenever I get pitched by a startup, I always look to see if they’ve properly identified the competition. For starters, I can guarantee you that someone is already working on the same idea. It’s a universal truth. But more importantly than that, competitive research and analysis is one of those areas that is often horribly […]
Have You Really Identified Your Biggest Competitor?
Every startup has competition. In fact, I can virtually guarantee you that someone is already working on your idea. And you know that you can’t go into an investor pitch and say, “We don’t have any competition.” That’s completely untrue and sends horrible signals to investors. But who is your biggest competitor? Most startups have […]
Bashing the Competition
When pitching investors, don’t bash the competition. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend bashing the competition under any circumstances – when meeting with prospects, clients, or even internally. It sends the wrong message and positions the conversation around others and not you. Bashing the competition also makes you look petty and foolish. Jason Cohen expresses this […]
New Competitors Help Validate Your Market
Competition can be scary. There’s no doubt about it. Many of us have probably had a holy crap moment upon discovering new competition. And just imagine if that competition is a behemoth … like Google. James Siminoff isn’t worried about Google entering into his competitive landscape. In fact, he’s openly thanking Google for doing so. […]
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