Same Idea, Different Target Audience

If you're ever worried about your product or service being too similar to another product, just remember, the world is huge.

Monster.com started in 1995 and was a powerhouse for job searches. Then came The Ladders in 2003. The Ladders targets jobs paying 100k and over. They could have said, oh, nobody needs another job searching website. WRONG!

YouTube is a powerhouse, but TikTok targeted the short video space. Did YouTube notice? You bet! YouTube recently started YouTube Shorts.

Remember Myspace? Facebook enters the chat...

There are different ways to win. You can make a superior product, but one of the best ways to begin is identifying a smaller target audience than your competition. It can shift over time and even widen as you succeed, but if you don't identify who you're targeting, you may end up targeting no one. And if no one wants your product, have you then succeeded?

This is something I've learned working in Venture Capital, and I hope to leverage as I create my own startup.