How Startups Create Their Own Markets

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is trying to be a competitor in an existing market instead of creating their own market. In this post, I’ll give you some case studies and strategies to get you thinking bigger.

Whether we’re first time founders or serial entrepreneurs, it’s an easy trap to fall into, and often we don’t even realize it. We come up with an elegant new solution for a costly problem, but then we shoot ourselves in the foot trying to be a clone of the very incumbents we claim to disrupt.

Startups will chase the establishment for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it makes it easier to gain initial traction. We call ourselves Uber, but safer. We’re Bitcoin, but lighter. We’re Facebook, but without all the evil.

Not long ago, I wrote a post after talking to a bunch of my investor friends about why some entrepreneurs can’t get a second look. One of the highlights of that post (according to you guys) was a line an investor quoted from Lucius Birch: “The problem with first-time entrepreneurs is they tend to dream too small.”

Dream too small, miss your moonshot. Entrepreneurs need to remember that we’re not here to hate the player, we’re here to change the game.

Disrupting a Market vs Creating a Market