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“Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

andrewchen.co

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Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#21

Post by a13n »

dheera wrote: post #17
a13n wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the market is probably big enough to fit multiple nearly identical products at the same time and still have them all profitable. Agreed, but VCs don't need you to build a profitable company, they need you to build a billion dollar company, in order to return their fund. This "How are you going to win your market?" is driven by venture capitalism. Most startups in the Bay Area are VC-backed.

Chevron, Shell, UPS, and FedEx are all billion dollar companies. They succeeded not because of differentiating product, but because the market is so big that it's hard for a single company to dominate it.

So you think if you pick a big enough market, then building a billion dollar company with no product differentiation will be trivial?

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#22

Post by ronilan »

dheera wrote: post #3

Besides the "X for Y" approach, I find it laughable that every time someone says they are doing just "X" that the usual Bay Area response is "How are you differentiating from your competitors?" Go ask how UPS differentiates themselves from FedEx. Or how Shell differentiates themselves from Chevron. In reality, while product differentiation is good, unless there already exists a monopoly that has eaten every inch of t…

> how UPS differentiates themselves from FedEx.

Wikipedia will tell you that UPS started as a parcel delivery service in the early 20th century. Naturally it was ground based and evolved that way.

FedEx was founded in the 70s as a technology driven startup with the idea of using planes for delivery.

FedEx was UPS for Express Deliveries. X for Y.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#24

Post by jandrese »

dheera wrote: post #3

Besides the "X for Y" approach, I find it laughable that every time someone says they are doing just "X" that the usual Bay Area response is "How are you differentiating from your competitors?" Go ask how UPS differentiates themselves from FedEx. Or how Shell differentiates themselves from Chevron. In reality, while product differentiation is good, unless there already exists a monopoly that has eaten every inch of t…

A more direct question would be "Why should a potential customer choose you over $established_competitor_x?"

If your best answer is "We are adding diversity to the marketplace", then you're probably doomed. If you aren't better in some way (faster, cheaper, better tech, etc...) then people are going to naturally gravitate towards the incumbent who has already shown some staying power and has infrastructure in place that you do not.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#25

Post by dheera »

a13n wrote: post #21
dheera wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chevron, Shell, UPS, and FedEx are all billion dollar companies. They succeeded not because of differentiating product, but because the market is so big that it's hard for a single company to dominate it.

So you think if you pick a big enough market, then building a billion dollar company with no product differentiation will be trivial?

Not trivial, but very possible with a lot of hard work.

Let's say you want to start a new grocery store chain and compete with Safeway. Differentiating your product (e.g. Trader Joe's) is one way, but another way is to just build new grocery stores where people want them and they don't already exist.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#26

Post by rolltiide »

dheera wrote: post #3

Besides the "X for Y" approach, I find it laughable that every time someone says they are doing just "X" that the usual Bay Area response is "How are you differentiating from your competitors?" Go ask how UPS differentiates themselves from FedEx. Or how Shell differentiates themselves from Chevron. In reality, while product differentiation is good, unless there already exists a monopoly that has eaten every inch of t…

I just tell people that my neighborhood also has multiple grocery stores

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#27

Post by tootie »

dheera wrote: post #3

Besides the "X for Y" approach, I find it laughable that every time someone says they are doing just "X" that the usual Bay Area response is "How are you differentiating from your competitors?" Go ask how UPS differentiates themselves from FedEx. Or how Shell differentiates themselves from Chevron. In reality, while product differentiation is good, unless there already exists a monopoly that has eaten every inch of t…

How Lyft differentiates from Uber might be more on the nose.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#28

Post by fortydegrees »

dheera wrote: post #3

Besides the "X for Y" approach, I find it laughable that every time someone says they are doing just "X" that the usual Bay Area response is "How are you differentiating from your competitors?" Go ask how UPS differentiates themselves from FedEx. Or how Shell differentiates themselves from Chevron. In reality, while product differentiation is good, unless there already exists a monopoly that has eaten every inch of t…

You need to be able to answer that. The answer can be no, and saying why will only help demonstrate your understanding of your business and the market.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#29

Post by a13n »

dheera wrote: post #17
a13n wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the market is probably big enough to fit multiple nearly identical products at the same time and still have them all profitable. Agreed, but VCs don't need you to build a profitable company, they need you to build a billion dollar company, in order to return their fund. This "How are you going to win your market?" is driven by venture capitalism. Most startups in the Bay Area are VC-backed.

Chevron, Shell, UPS, and FedEx are all billion dollar companies. They succeeded not because of differentiating product, but because the market is so big that it's hard for a single company to dominate it.

All of these companies were started between 50 and 150 years ago, when there was much less competition. These days you need a better story for how you're going to win a market and keep it.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#30

Post by hising »

Reading the article and trying to think of different startup ideas. Gets a non-closable (AFAIK) modal that covers the whole screen force you to go back. Maybe a startup idea that helps entrepreneurs grow without adapting to bad UX behaviour is a great idea that needs attention
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