Codename YAWN (Yet Another Wall of Nonsense)
Tech & funding meta mix #1
Next one’s on biochemistry and systems
Waging wars with the big boys despite the Matthew effect
7 startup strategies for outcompeting the tech giants
A startup may not enjoy the benefits brought by the vast resources of market leaders, yet it still can:
Create a blue ocean for yourself/pivoting — a sub-niche usually [10 Competitive Advantages Small Businesses Have Over Big Companies | ZenBusiness Inc.]
Customer service:
“A well-tuned small business can easily outperform its larger counterparts in customer service.” (Shopkeeper’s advantage)
Building customer trust by:
- Responding quickly;
- Acting politely;
- Rewarding customers for their loyalty;
- Heeding feedbacks;
- Providing free (preferably useful) info.
Oil your backend well so it can come out ahead of the big boys’ infrastructure. No one forbids you from using API/other building blocks!
Playing price wars by reducing them with the Big Ones may prove dangerous and futile, but it’s mentioned: if they set to really out you, getting a 0.1% breadwinner vertical at a slight loss for, say, 6 months isn’t something impossible;
Cooperating and collaborating with the Gs can bring value to both sides. Sharon Hadary has emphasized this in his post on WSJ where he stresses the importance of “…identifying what your company can bring to the relationship that increases the success of both entities.”;
Studying the Gs moves and moving forward because of less bureaucracy;
Instead of IMO useless (1) They have advantages from the OP, I’d add “move faster”. A small business is almost always able to buckle up and win some hours/days.
Shipping early by YC
Without shipping, you have no growth — and by definition, you are not a startup.
A number of psychological factors stop you from shipping: pride, perfectionism, scope creep, fear of criticism, and fear of rejection.
Work toward a v0, not a v1
The v0 is the least amount of work possible to say “Hey, this is what I’m creating. What do you think?”
Work toward v0 features
Just as shipping early is essential to finding product/market fit, releasing new features early is also essential to product/feature fit.
With careful design and Wizard of Oz techniques you can often disguise minimal functionality while preserving resources.
Downside: your product will feel less mature and polished.
Upside: feedback, data, and learning + iteration speed far outweighing the downs.
Mini-demos
When anyone is working on a new feature, they can share an absurdly early version of it. Everyone can observe, and discuss.
MDs are:
- Right direction before investing significant time & resources, as it’s easy to get off-track with many unknowns;
- A diverse range of viewpoints and needs into each feature’s design;
- A regular drip feed of progress, along with…
- Motivation to build stuff without unnecessary work like slide decks.
Tips
When in doubt about traction, three months with no distinct user growth is a reasonable warning flag that it’s time to try something else.
Alternative SaaS funding
- TinySeed ⇒ 12-month accelerator program focused on post-revenue subscription companies;
- Calm Company Fund ⇒ upfront capital before the founders begin working full-time;
- Lighter Capital ⇒ revenue-based financing (>$15,000 MRR, >50% gross margin);
- AppSumo ⇒ “deals”-based marketing for traffic and users;
- Corl ⇒ revenue-based financing;
Fundraising and stuff
That I found noice (I’m no true engineer, daddy):
Capital ⇒ auto-sending SAFEs, raising and withdrawing monies, all-in-one suite;
Cabal ⇒ fundraising CRM;
Finta ⇒ another fundraising CRM + a coach + a checklist (yay!);
(again) Signal + Brieflink by NFX ⇒ fundraising CRM + a pitch deck tracking software;
Fairmint ⇒ community fundraising, batteries included.
