not an expert by any means but just my 2 cents, if a guy is willing to enter their cc and pay for your product, there is no bigger validation than that. everything else feels like smoke and mirrors to me
Competition is not market validation
31–40 of 41 posts
Re: Competition is not market validation
#32This one strikes straight to the heart. We pivoted post YC batch to what was hot at the time and saw a lot of competition (some raising millions more than us). We thought this market validation. Five years later, almost every single company on that list has either died or pivoted.
I mean, markets and industries change as well. Companies that have product market fit today can find themselves having to pivot as the sands shift under them.
Re: Competition is not market validation
#33It depends on how you define competition. If you define it as something other than actual customer demand, then Of course, this isn't validating.
Lots of companies successfully raising funds isn't market validation, but who ever said it was?
Re: Competition is not market validation
#34It depends on how you define competition. If you define it as something other than actual customer demand, then Of course, this isn't validating. Lots of companies successfully raising funds isn't market validation, but who ever said it was?
> something other than actual customer demand, then Of course, this isn't validating
This is tautological as there is no other way of reading customer demand than the market. Otherwise, I suspect, the vast majority of customer demand would not be available to purchase at all.
Re: Competition is not market validation
#35My views on market validation have changed with age. What I've observed after talking to hundreds of founders is that it's now so easy for someone to enter a market that it seems like those that are successful are the ones who managed to _create_ their market. No matter how smart or how good your idea is, many many successful ventures are successful because of some intangible / hard-to-reproduce circumstance that all…
Yes, totally true. This is dangerous though when those circumstances change and basically invalidate the whole category.
I can think of NFT infrastructure here:
Various product categories were created with market leaders that owned them.
But the NFT hype didn’t hold and we effectively realized the use cases didn’t manifest beyond ZIRP-driven speculation and a small collector-artist scene.
So that can negate the whole category or crown a different winner when a technology changes.
Imagine if we used NFTs to verify if an AI or human made a piece of media.
Suddenly “marketplace” becomes a much less interesting category than scalable, fast APIs to create NFTs
Re: Competition is not market validation
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they don't have customers you won't either.
If they don't have customers, they aren't competition.
You might think they are competition though.
Or they might have a single customer - which because they treat well and charge a fair price you won't be able to get away from them.
Re: Competition is not market validation
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, monopolies are great for the C-suite, but they turn out to be really bad for the end users and customers, the real losers when there is no competition. Get in loser, we're going for a monopoly! It's all fun and games until you're locked in and enshitification sets in. I would sooner go without than get fooled again.
Please read the article before responding.
Please say something intelligent about a link when you drop it. No one can tell if you're being sarcastic or not.
I did watch the video of him and I can confirm (so no one else wastes their time) he does not address why monopolies are great for everyone other than the CEO. But he does go into depth about why women should not wear Hillary Clinton style pantsuits when pitching ideas to him. Noted.
I am not sure if the video is the same as the article, but there is no way I am going to pay a penny to hear what Theil has to say. Honestly, after I heard him rambling about the anti-christ crap he spews I would pay for him to stop talking.
Re: Competition is not market validation
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please read the article before responding.
Please say something intelligent about a link when you drop it. No one can tell if you're being sarcastic or not. I did watch the video of him and I can confirm (so no one else wastes their time) he does not address why monopolies are great for everyone other than the CEO. But he does go into depth about why women should not wear Hillary Clinton style pantsuits when pitching ideas to him. Noted. I am not sure if the…
If you don’t have a response to an article or don’t like the author, just move on.
The rude thing would be to respond based on the title, when the article is actually about something else.
Re: Competition is not market validation
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please say something intelligent about a link when you drop it. No one can tell if you're being sarcastic or not. I did watch the video of him and I can confirm (so no one else wastes their time) he does not address why monopolies are great for everyone other than the CEO. But he does go into depth about why women should not wear Hillary Clinton style pantsuits when pitching ideas to him. Noted. I am not sure if the…
If you don’t have a response to an article or don’t like the author, just move on. The rude thing would be to respond based on the title, when the article is actually about something else.
So what did you think the article is about? The polite thing would be to discuss it. That's what HN is here for!
Re: Competition is not market validation
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you don’t have a response to an article or don’t like the author, just move on. The rude thing would be to respond based on the title, when the article is actually about something else.
So what did you think the article is about? The polite thing would be to discuss it. That's what HN is here for!
I guess I’ll assume you’re asking in good faith.
The article is not about how monopolies are good for society.
It’s about how businesses over emphasize small differences which make them indistinguishable from their competition.
It’s better to be in your own category rather than a slightly different permutation.
Capturing the value you produce from a business is actually very difficult. Think about how many Facebook users are a net less for the business. Good business plans also plan for capturing value.