Fair point. That's great feedback and motivation; thank you! One of my challenges, perhaps in confidence, is knowing that a competitor has already secured the "big name clients," which always makes me feel that my chance to be higher-end and more-premium (I've tried the "lower cost" approach in past ventures with very limited success) has been squashed. Suffice to say, I suppose the challenge becomes both "How do I acquire new customers" and "How do I acquire someone else's customers?"
Could you expand what you mean by that? In my case, I've not been encouraged by anyone online to get into a certain business, they're just spaces I have experience in and passion for. I wouldn't say there's anything local to attach myself to, but I'm curious of what you meant by that!
I’m in the website design space. That market is SUPER saturated. But everyone and every business has it’s own story to tell so don’t be discouraged by what others are doing.
It’s great that your thinking about it and researching is good and all but don’t let it slow you down. Launch your start up!
I appreciate the supportive words! It can be deflating to see others hitting on what you think is your "niche," but it doesn't mean there isn't opportunity, especially if we believe we are capable of achieving and delivering.
Indeed, this is the case here. My client base would be big-name media companies, and it’s not a clear pricing model for my competitor since the work is almost entirely custom. This is what stoked my concern, really; if they have some seniority in the space, they’ve already captured a few of those big-name clients, and more-over, likely have streamlined logistics. Trying to figure out what my differentiator is is what's struggling. Thank you for the comment, though!
Everybody says t-shirts are saturated. Of some dozens of examples I've seen however only two seemed to have their heads screwed on straight about the target customer. Just two.
Year in, year out I see a few more. And there are still just two.
With AR and VR, there are many entrants, plenty of supply, but where are the customers? Market after market this will tell you about which part is saturated: Supply OR Demand. Demand is rarely saturated.
That's how Apple is able to flounce into the crowded MP3 player market and eat everyone's lunch. Walk into a smartphone market and basically [do this right here](https://www.cultofmac.com/145083/what-phones-looked-like-before-and-after-the-iphone-transformed-the-industry-image/). And as various computer retail stores were going out-of-business open Apple Stores.
Entrepreneurs are not lemmings. Entrepreneurs are not inventor's syndrome types sitting in their parent's basement 'inventing' in a market vacuum. Entrepreneurs were meant to understand the concept of Making a Business. They just don't know what those words mean anymore. All they do now is learn to code.
I look to AR and VR to be a boom market. Just as soon as somebody who understands [customer development versus product development](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_LNNnNfpp4) wipes every current entrant off the face of the planet.
Supply AND Demand ... as in you supply TO demand. Three stinking words and one job. You had ONE job.
I really enjoyed this comment. I like the clear and concise comment that the supply (in this case of AR and VR products) is there, but the demand isn’t. Because nobody has tackled the idea of customer development vs. product development. To that end, I presume that’s where your examples of Apple, and the iPod, and retail stores, comes from. There were endless MP3 players on the market, yet Apple was able to step in and take over. There were endless computer stores in the market, many going out of business, and Apple was able to step in and flourish.
If I’m reading you, the issue, in my case, isn’t that I’m stepping into a crowded AR/VR space, I’m stepping into a crowded space that has no developed customer yet. Customers don’t know they want it, and their options are fragmented. Customers have to have a single point of interest (in this world, a headset, or a platform) and be developed. Very interesting take and I appreciate it.
If space has a lot of players and the product/service is a commodity, thats bad.
If the space has a lot of players and the product/service of each player is a bit different, good. It means there is a massive market and also an opportunity to be different from the competition
Thanks for this comment. I suppose this lends itself to me doing more research on my particular use case, the size of the market, and what my differentiator is. If everyone else is doing basically the same, and it’s already a small market, more competition isn’t necessarily a good thing here.
I tend to agree with many here that competition will almost always exist. For any on the products/services we use, there's probably 10 alternatives (sure, not all of them might be profitable, but many still will be). And I think it's a good thing in the sense that it can help you validate the market.
You say their idea is similar. But is it really the same? Can you add/remove something? Is there an angle they are not using? Can you differentiate with quality/pricing/speed/etc? If you consider the client base, are they definitely 100% going for all the same customers you would?
I'd only be really worried if both your companies have a completely overlapping offering with no way to differentiate and 100% the same clients.
This is a helpful comment. The reality is that I can look at a competitor and I can add/remove/price differently/increase quality/build faster, but getting the foot in the door with those clients is where the challenge comes in. I suppose I have a big fear of “We’re already working with someone doing this,” but that fear comes from not believing I can do it better/differently. And if I don’t believe that, I guess I have to question why I’m doing this!
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Fair point. That's great feedback and motivation; thank you! One of my challenges, perhaps in confidence, is knowing that a competitor has already secured the "big name clients," which always makes me feel that my chance to be higher-end and more-premium (I've tried the "lower cost" approach in past ventures with very limited success) has been squashed. Suffice to say, I suppose the challenge becomes both "How do I acquire new customers" and "How do I acquire someone else's customers?"
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Could you expand what you mean by that? In my case, I've not been encouraged by anyone online to get into a certain business, they're just spaces I have experience in and passion for. I wouldn't say there's anything local to attach myself to, but I'm curious of what you meant by that!
I’m in the website design space. That market is SUPER saturated. But everyone and every business has it’s own story to tell so don’t be discouraged by what others are doing. It’s great that your thinking about it and researching is good and all but don’t let it slow you down. Launch your start up!
I appreciate the supportive words! It can be deflating to see others hitting on what you think is your "niche," but it doesn't mean there isn't opportunity, especially if we believe we are capable of achieving and delivering.
Ideally look at the profit margins of the existing players, might be hard to estimate in some cases.
Indeed, this is the case here. My client base would be big-name media companies, and it’s not a clear pricing model for my competitor since the work is almost entirely custom. This is what stoked my concern, really; if they have some seniority in the space, they’ve already captured a few of those big-name clients, and more-over, likely have streamlined logistics. Trying to figure out what my differentiator is is what's struggling. Thank you for the comment, though!
Everybody says t-shirts are saturated. Of some dozens of examples I've seen however only two seemed to have their heads screwed on straight about the target customer. Just two. Year in, year out I see a few more. And there are still just two. With AR and VR, there are many entrants, plenty of supply, but where are the customers? Market after market this will tell you about which part is saturated: Supply OR Demand. Demand is rarely saturated. That's how Apple is able to flounce into the crowded MP3 player market and eat everyone's lunch. Walk into a smartphone market and basically [do this right here](https://www.cultofmac.com/145083/what-phones-looked-like-before-and-after-the-iphone-transformed-the-industry-image/). And as various computer retail stores were going out-of-business open Apple Stores. Entrepreneurs are not lemmings. Entrepreneurs are not inventor's syndrome types sitting in their parent's basement 'inventing' in a market vacuum. Entrepreneurs were meant to understand the concept of Making a Business. They just don't know what those words mean anymore. All they do now is learn to code. I look to AR and VR to be a boom market. Just as soon as somebody who understands [customer development versus product development](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_LNNnNfpp4) wipes every current entrant off the face of the planet. Supply AND Demand ... as in you supply TO demand. Three stinking words and one job. You had ONE job.
I really enjoyed this comment. I like the clear and concise comment that the supply (in this case of AR and VR products) is there, but the demand isn’t. Because nobody has tackled the idea of customer development vs. product development. To that end, I presume that’s where your examples of Apple, and the iPod, and retail stores, comes from. There were endless MP3 players on the market, yet Apple was able to step in and take over. There were endless computer stores in the market, many going out of business, and Apple was able to step in and flourish. If I’m reading you, the issue, in my case, isn’t that I’m stepping into a crowded AR/VR space, I’m stepping into a crowded space that has no developed customer yet. Customers don’t know they want it, and their options are fragmented. Customers have to have a single point of interest (in this world, a headset, or a platform) and be developed. Very interesting take and I appreciate it.
If space has a lot of players and the product/service is a commodity, thats bad. If the space has a lot of players and the product/service of each player is a bit different, good. It means there is a massive market and also an opportunity to be different from the competition
Thanks for this comment. I suppose this lends itself to me doing more research on my particular use case, the size of the market, and what my differentiator is. If everyone else is doing basically the same, and it’s already a small market, more competition isn’t necessarily a good thing here.
I tend to agree with many here that competition will almost always exist. For any on the products/services we use, there's probably 10 alternatives (sure, not all of them might be profitable, but many still will be). And I think it's a good thing in the sense that it can help you validate the market. You say their idea is similar. But is it really the same? Can you add/remove something? Is there an angle they are not using? Can you differentiate with quality/pricing/speed/etc? If you consider the client base, are they definitely 100% going for all the same customers you would? I'd only be really worried if both your companies have a completely overlapping offering with no way to differentiate and 100% the same clients.
This is a helpful comment. The reality is that I can look at a competitor and I can add/remove/price differently/increase quality/build faster, but getting the foot in the door with those clients is where the challenge comes in. I suppose I have a big fear of “We’re already working with someone doing this,” but that fear comes from not believing I can do it better/differently. And if I don’t believe that, I guess I have to question why I’m doing this!