4 ms·
I'm reminded by a simple but powerful message one of my professors delivered to my MBA class a few years ago. "You can't just look for a gap in the market. You
by apapli 11y ago
I'm reminded by a simple but powerful message one of my professors delivered to my MBA class a few years ago.
"You can't just look for a gap in the market. You also need
to verify there's a market in the gap."
Homejoy most likely saw opportunity in the first sentence, but it appears they may not have spent time thinking about the second (or didn't research a broad enough segment of the market).
'Disrupting' a market isn't simply about creating a mobile app, or a 'marketplace' for service X after all. That's just a game of buzzword bingo.
- ScottWhigham 11y agoI love that saying. However, don't forget that a lot of really, really smart people put money into Homejoy because they felt Homejoy had solved the market (i.e. there was a market in the gap). It's not enough to just say, in retrospect, "... they may not have spent time thinking about the second (or didn't research..."). That's just clearly not the case here - they spent plenty of time on that as did their investors. Sometimes it comes down to the fact that they left out key components, the founders weren't capable, the market didn't react as anticipated, etc.
- hitekker 11y ago"You can't just look for a gap in the market. You also need to verify there's a market in the gap." I am remembering this. One of those quotes that simplifies but essentially explains a host of unsustainable businesses.