“In startups, you’re living in the future, so on some level, there’s no market yet. There was no market for browsers in 1993, and there was no market for ridesharing in 2009. Markets in the startup world are movements, so trying to quantify the total available market is wrongheaded. It’s more about quantifying the potential energy of your insight.” – Mike Maples
‘Sword and the Shield’ go-to-market strategy ⚔️ 🛡️
Which the telephone perfectly exemplified:
Around the time of the telephone’s development, the telegraph allowed for transcontinental communication through Morse Code. Initially, the telephone only allowed for VERY short-distance calls, but once someone could use a telephone to make a cross-country call, the telegraph companies were screwed.
- The shield: your go-to-market strategy is so different that the incumbent doesn’t feel a need to attack you
- The sword: the skills you build over time that the incumbent lacks (and by the time the incumbent realizes you’re a threat, the asymmetry of your skills compared to theirs is too overwhelming)
Startups are where quality and scale meet
- If you have high-scale but low quality, you get McDonald’s
- If you have low-scale but high quality, you get Ritz-Carlton
- If you have high-scale and high quality, you get an Amazon or Google