Startup Competitive Advantages that Work • Hacker News Board

Re: Startup Competitive Advantages that Work

#41

Post by presidentender » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 11:19 PM UTC

dennisgorelik wrote: post #40

btilly wrote: post #25

What is sad is to see a company with a competitive advantage fail to see it and throw it away. I used to work at Rent.com. A key competitive advantage is that its revenue cycle is wrong. When it started its competitors all made money as soon as they referred someone. Rent.com only made money after the person was referred, leased, reported it to us, the apartment was contacted, and the apartment paid. Optimizing for t…

It looks like Rent.com still ahead of mynewplace.com http://www.quantcast.com/profile/embed?img=http%3A//www.quan...

I think his point is that they could have forced mynewplace out of the market very quickly, and didn't.

Re: Startup Competitive Advantages that Work

#42

Post by chc » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 11:39 PM UTC

paraschopra wrote: post #24

There are a ton of successful companies that don't fit any of the criteria (Facebook, Nike, McDonald's, etc) In fact I have to think hard to come up with companies that may have had unfair advantages. So, while unfair advantages may work in your favor. Not having them (yet being successful) may actually be a norm.

Zuckerberg was a college student when he developed The Facebook, so he at least had the insider advantage over his competition at the time (Myspace, Friendster, Orkut). This also ties into the fact that his product was a lot more narrowly focused, which leads to the "single-mindedness" advantage and was absolutely crucial to Facebook's success. I don't know enough about the history of Nike or McDonald's to comment there.

Re: Startup Competitive Advantages that Work

#43

Post by btilly » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 11:46 PM UTC

presidentender wrote: post #41

dennisgorelik wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like Rent.com still ahead of mynewplace.com http://www.quantcast.com/profile/embed?img=http%3A//www.quan...

I think his point is that they could have forced mynewplace out of the market very quickly, and didn't.

Exactly. And at this point MyNewPlace has figured out enough of what Rent did well to be competitive, and is coming up with new ideas faster.

It doesn't help that most of the team that made Rent what it was in the first place (including me) have moved on. There is a definite loss of institutional knowledge.

Re: Startup Competitive Advantages that Work

#44

Post by ericd » Tue, Jul 20, 2010, 4:27 AM UTC

btilly wrote: post #25

What is sad is to see a company with a competitive advantage fail to see it and throw it away. I used to work at Rent.com. A key competitive advantage is that its revenue cycle is wrong. When it started its competitors all made money as soon as they referred someone. Rent.com only made money after the person was referred, leased, reported it to us, the apartment was contacted, and the apartment paid. Optimizing for t…

This is fascinating. Would you mind talking a bit more about this via email? I can't seem to find your contact info, but mine is in my profile.