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There really isn't a continuum in most technology markets. Startups that constrain their growth tend to get pounded into the ground by startups that don't. Tr
by pmarca 14y ago
There really isn't a continuum in most technology markets. Startups that constrain their growth tend to get pounded into the ground by startups that don't. Try being a small search engine competing with Google.
- drewrv 14y agoDuck duck go is doing just fine.
- staunch 14y agoJudged by growth rate it's not doing very well: https://duckduckgo.com/traffic.html https://duckduckgo.com/traffic.html
- nostrademons 14y agoIsn't that circular reasoning: "Startups that constrain their growth..." If it's cited as an example of a startup that constrains its growth, of course its growth rate is going to be low. The real question is whether it stays in business and is a worthwhile investment for its founder.
- staunch 14y agoAnd they took VC actually so it's a muddy example.
- ef4 14y agoThat's a poor example, because "search engine" is the kind of business that is necessarily out on the far end of the scale. If we start travelling down the continuum, next you'd hit something like "an app that makes lawyers more effective", then further than that "an app that makes patent lawyers more effective", etc. At each increment, you trade off market size and ultimate growth potential for less competition and lower marketing costs. Each of these niches can still be extremely lucrative (from the perspective of the entrepreneur, possibly less from the perspective of a VC who wants to make 100x). What's more, individual businesses leap up the continuum all the time. The first McDonalds was a barbershop-like business.