tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858245.post4595274651503510152..comments2024-01-09T21:59:59.860-08:00Comments on Will Price: Isolating Causality: Bad Market or Bad CompanyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526077009135142958noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858245.post-5882255613948589232007-02-28T06:48:00.000-08:002007-02-28T06:48:00.000-08:00Hi Will.Having gone through half a dozen start-up ...Hi Will.<BR/><BR/>Having gone through half a dozen start-up initiatives myself, I would add a couple other comments:<BR/><BR/>1. Knowing your competitors must go far beyond knowing pricing, features, and customer base. Classical SWOT exercise does not cut it. You have to figure out your competitor's strategy or you're "toast." I have seen start-ups blown out of the water by failing to align their early market advantage with primary target market. A recent notable IPO example is Acme Packet. Dozens of companies shaped and created the market, yet Acme (…a late entrant) capitalized on the opportunity. With a management of entirely MBAs, I am sure they saw an obvious opportunity.<BR/>2. You can have a dead or radically declining market and still be able to capture sufficient sources of competitive to make a decent business mode. Good example is Skype.<BR/><BR/> I agree with your overall posting. Start-ups get too dependent on technology advantage, innovation, intellectual property, rock star developers, and their own Kool-aid. One of the biggest deficiencies I have seen at both start-ups and even multi nationals is sound strategic alignment, some real-time BSC type mechanism, and closed loop process. Too many start-ups seem to be afraid of the keeping things simple and asking some of the fundamental questions ahead of coding.<BR/><BR/>…cheers<BR/>Kameran Ahari<BR/>Kameran@napaconsulting.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858245.post-74666484621918069972007-02-20T10:57:00.000-08:002007-02-20T10:57:00.000-08:00great post Will.great post Will.Jeremyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10901878609454687715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858245.post-29494316442295087842007-02-19T07:40:00.000-08:002007-02-19T07:40:00.000-08:00Quite rightly, people have emailed me or posted co...Quite rightly, people have emailed me or posted comments asking when to start worrying? In new markets, it may not be immediately obvious if there is an issue.<BR/><BR/>In my experience, the time to start worrying is roughly one year after the product has been in the market (ie GA). By that time, there will have been a sufficient number of sales calls, market tests of need and fit, etc and by then company's hitting a healthy market will be beginning to see good customer, parnter, PR, prospective employee, etc traction.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07526077009135142958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858245.post-38549006728958793732007-02-18T11:45:00.000-08:002007-02-18T11:45:00.000-08:00Fantastic post, and it meshes very closely which m...Fantastic post, and it meshes very closely which my experiences. I have a follow-up question about timing. Many of these symptoms are true early in the life cycle and start reducing over time. At what point do you need to be worried? A year after product launch? Two years?Rahulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16567400574616640958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858245.post-5988109514705987792007-02-17T15:14:00.000-08:002007-02-17T15:14:00.000-08:00If the market doesn't care, sometimes it is necess...If the market doesn't care, sometimes it is necessary to educate it. Jobs had to do that with the personal computer. However, that's easier done by a larger company with deeper pockets, which is why the PC market grew so much more quickly after IBM got into it, and why Apple still struggles for share of that market.Francine Hardaway, Ph.Dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05013742890592372643noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858245.post-62249561735595665602007-02-16T10:14:00.000-08:002007-02-16T10:14:00.000-08:00Outstanding post. Will, how would you contrast the...Outstanding post. Will, how would you contrast the traditional "first mover advantage" sought by many new companies vs. the perils of building a business with no market (or one that doesn't care)? Where is that line?WTLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05093753212267056321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858245.post-52724822526086177022007-02-16T09:40:00.000-08:002007-02-16T09:40:00.000-08:00An absolute classic posting for anybody that has b...An absolute classic posting for anybody that has been in a start up, or worked around them. I hope this does the rounds. If I could be so bold as to add one more item: "If you cannot clearly state what customer pain your product or service addresses"....Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03194645813782269802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858245.post-81340669462652507402007-02-16T08:06:00.000-08:002007-02-16T08:06:00.000-08:00One question - what if you have a very large numbe...One question - what if you have a very large number of very small competitors? Looking at our experience, we look good for all the check points under 9 except for 3 - (know top 2-3 competitors).<BR/><BR/>We've deliberately built a structure to allow us to cost effectively enter and (we believe) dominate a market that for technical reasons is currently structurally fragmented. <BR/><BR/>Obviously the risk is that we have *not* found a way to overcome structural fragmentation in our market and will end up as another small player in a big space, but it will be interesting to see how that plays out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com