Page references are written wrt to the english epub version.
page 21
Tech: 0 -> 1 Globalization: 1 -> n
It is better to risk boldness than triviality. A bad plan is better than no plan Competitive markets destroy profits. Sales matters just as much as product.
Why page 29
It’s important to become a monopoly. Being at crossroads or doing something “new” by mixing old concepts does not necessarily be better.
Cite:
Non-monopolists exaggerate their distinction by defining their market as the intersection of various smaller markets:
British food ∩ restaurant ∩ Palo Alto
Rap star ∩ hackers ∩ sharks
Monopolists, by contrast, disguise their monopoly by framing their market as the union of several large markets:
search engine ∪ mobile phones ∪ wearable computers ∪ self-driving cars
page 49
- Proprietary technology: must be 10x better than competition to give you an edge.
- Network effects: a product is more useful the more people use it (e.g. facebook). However, it is mandatory that early adopters find value in it although it is small (if it can only work at scale, it will never scale up to that point).
- Economies of Scale: the structure must be able to scale without many changes or increased costs (e.g. twitter structure allowed it to scalate with minor changes - mostly server-side).
- Branding: is important to change people’s perception but it must always underline the virtues of the product (no empty branding will save yahoo if it has not a strong product).
page 53
Every startup is small at the start. Every monopoly dominates a large share of its market. Therefore, every startup should start with a very small market . The perfect target market for a startup is a small group of particular people concentrated together and served by few or no competitors.
Once you create and dominate a niche market, then you should gradually expand into related and slightly broader markets (e.g. Amazon starting with only books and expanding to CDs, etc…). Sequencing markets correctly is underrated, and it takes discipline to expand gradually. The most successful companies make the core progression—to first dominate a specific niche and then scale to adjacent markets—a part of their founding narrative.
The concept was coined to describe threats to incumbent companies, so startups’ obsession with disruption means they see themselves through older firms’ eyes. Disruption will cause confrontation (probably one a start-up will lose). If you are going from 0->1 there is no real competition because your product is new.