A Smart Bear · Jason Cohen
articleprincipleHow startups beat incumbents
25 February 2024Profit
Source excerpt
About A Smart BearA startup can beat a large, successful incumbent, if it does things the incumbent can not or will not do. Here are those things.
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Apollo layer
What a founder can learn
Founder takeaway
Don’t compete with incumbents on their terms. Build your strategy around something valuable to customers that established competitors are structurally unable or unwilling to do.
Why it matters
Startups usually lack incumbents’ resources and reach. Choosing a battlefield where incumbent strengths become constraints creates a more defensible path than trying to outperform them at what they already do well.
Relevant guides
Put it to work
Ask: What do target customers need that incumbents consistently avoid—and what evidence suggests their constraints or incentives will keep them from responding?
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