Building products in an already established market

Agreed. A saturated market is very different from an established market.

The good thing about launching into an established but not saturated market is that you already have the validation that the product is needed so you just have to come up with something additional that the competition isn't offering.

If there are no competitors in your niche, it's rather a red flag.

Really interesting. Thank you.

"Find a real problem that a niche audience has".

Do you know if there is a "systematic approach" to "Find a real problem that a niche audience has"? Sometimes when I drive through the city and I see those huge buildings, I think, sure, there are a lot of unresolved needs in there. If there was a simple and effective method to discover them, the rest would be easier. Maybe creating a portal where people can leave their needs and sticking a QR at the entrance of those buildings is the way.

I think this first step is the most difficult.

Thanks again for the article.

When you are building a product in an already established market. How important, if at all, do you think company values are when looking to differentiate?

Would potential customers look at your values in comparison to others?

Interesting article!

My startup is currently the #2/3 to a very established player in our market - one thing worth noting is the level of "established" the other players are should affect your decision.

We're 2.5 years in, and while we've carved ourselves a nice little niche in the market that no one else caters to, we're still not on feature parity with the baseline of our competitors.

Very interesting article. One of the things I've struggled with is working out whether a lack of a specific product on the market is because there is no need for it. You say this is a good indicator that there isn't but surely sometimes it can mean there is. It could be because that product was available but it didn't do well because people weren't ready for it, or it wasn't marketed enough, etc. I'm sure there are a lot more reasons. You just need someone to come along and it's the right time and a good product etc. etc. and it suddenly takes off, and we all wonder how we survived without that product for so long. This would be the opposite of building for an established market.

This is a really insightful read! Thanks for sharing.

I appreciate the "Find a real problem that a niche audience has first." part but it is also the part that keeps me awake at night thinking about the niche for https://geeksandexperts.com/.

I started it out by giving micro-consultations to students in higher ed - especially doctors and lawyers who are not as active on social media. Then I found a smaller niche of indie creators who often used to post questions on Twitter asking people for problem-solving tips - on finding first users, growing Twitter, selling or buying a side hustle, and so on.

I did a LOT of customer interviews with both these audiences and honestly, I got some really good feedback and insights + users felt that the indie creator niche could benefit from a mentor/expert network connecting via 1:1 calls, yet the progress on the product sign-ups has been slow.

What am I missing out on?

this was a solid read, good share!