Entrepreneurs: the Errors of Common Wisdom and the Joys of Niches that Grow.
by Miki Saxon
Do you live in Silicon Valley or one of the Silicon clones (Alley, Forest, etc.)?
Do you focus your early marketing efforts on the tech world of which you are a part?
If so, you may be in for a shock or should I say rude awakening?
The problem is that that market is not the world and much of the “common wisdom” regarding early adopters is misleading or just plain wrong.
Common wisdom says that blacks are not early adopters or a prime target market. But according to Tristan Walker, who helped build Foursquare and was entrepreneur-in-residence at Andreessen Horowitz, that so-called wisdom is way off base.
“The demographic is starved for a company that cares about it,” he said, noting that while blacks tend to be among the early adopters and consumers of social technologies, it is rare for companies to acknowledge that or to market to them directly.
Common wisdom would expect techies to be the perfect audience for Aarthi Ramamurthy’s service that lets people try out high-end tech gear before purchasing it, but they weren’t.
“I thought it would be Google and Facebook employees with disposable income,” she said. But as it turns out, she added, it’s the “middle of the country that is very interested” in the service. (…) but much of the early adoption of its business occurred in states like Texas and Idaho.
Common wisdom says a company that sends customers boxes of personally tailored clothing would resonate with fashionistas in urban areas, but Katrina Lake, founder of Stitch Fix, found her service just as hot not only in less urban areas, but also with an unexpected customer.
“But the service was received almost as well by women in Wyoming, Alabama and Minnesota (…) Ms. Lake said she had expected her market to be busy women in their 20s and 30s who have no time to shop but want nice clothes for brunches and engagement parties. “But it turns out that concept really resonated with moms and people who were busy with their kids and families,” she said.
Common wisdom says that if you spend two years developing a product with the help and input of a specific audience they should be your customers, but that’s not always true.
The Mira Medicine Team…spent years building their first tool MS Bioscreen, which was developed for the physicians at the UCSF Dept of Neurology. So they naturally believed that their first customers would be neurologists. [They weren’t] 70 customers later they are no longer talking to neurologists.
Here are the three critical take-aways—
- Common wisdom is often wrong.
- Niches are often larger than they appear.
- ‘Should’ is a bad assumption and never a guarantee.
Flickr image credit: Chris Potter
