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> markets are bigger than what you'd think ... I mean this is email we're talking about I feel like you have it backwards. Email is obviously an extremely larg
by ZephyrBlu 6y ago
> markets are bigger than what you'd think ... I mean this is email we're talking about
I feel like you have it backwards. Email is obviously an extremely large market, so I'm not all surprised they managed to get to $1M ARR.
It's easier to carve out a niche if the market is bigger.
- achillesheels 6y agoIt's counter-intuitive because the Silicon Valley mantra, if not dogma, is to venture where no one else has headed yet. It would be much easier to fundraise if people saw competition as a healthy barometer for entrance. Google and the search engine is a famous example.
- danielmarkbruce 6y agoI'm not sure this is a SV mantra. Plenty of companies with products in spaces with lots of players get funded by very good VCs. Stripe. Zoom. Snowflake. 50 other data analytics companies. Arguably Airbnb. Lots of CRMs.
- achillesheels 6y agoI guess that’s what makes them good VC’s ;)
- danielmarkbruce 6y agoI guess so. IIRC somewhere Ben Horowitz talks about the fact that you are just going to have to face competition? I (and I guess others) often try to think of "new" ideas when anecdotally "better mousetraps" seem to have a better track record.
- achillesheels 6y agoI long ago rid myself of any conceit in originality in going to market. There is much more security in aiming at large and compounding markets with such a wedge as this company. The difficult part is in convincing investors who are looking to party. Quite simply: you can't.
- dvt 6y agoMaybe I'm wrong, but I feel that customer development would be harder in a well-established market with monolithic incumbents.
- ZephyrBlu 6y agoI feel like it would be much easier because there are bound to be underserved customers, especially on the solo operator/SMB end of the market. There might be room for 100 small scale products tailored to specific use cases.