We live in an age of abundance …….not scarcity; So, the rules are different. You cannot approach this marketplace with the same rules are the previous one.
What you used to sell in the past …..now you give it away for free …..
What you was free in the past …..now you could monetize it ……
What didn’t existed in the past as goods or services, can be made available as such and also be monetized.
Most of the startups do a good job in figuring out the business they are in buy fail to align their “go to market” strategy with the business you are in.
Go to market strategy should be thought through with respect to target customers as well as competition/incumbent.
In layman terms –
1. If you are competing with current incumbents, make sure that you don’t vie for their current customers right off the bat. You will fail!
2. If your Customers and you have same go to market strategy for your business/revenue model, you are doomed to fail! For example – if you are making a branded consumer app that gives your end user something from your Customer but your Customer also has a branded consumer app, you will fail! You are better off offering your value as part of your Customer’s branded app. (note user is different from customer in this regard)
3. You cannot compete effectively against your incumbent with the same go to market strategy – ESP with limited resources, lack of brand recognition, pedigree, etc. Just the way you focus on underserved customer to disrupt, you should also focus on underserved market approaches.
@Vsistla