What do you guys think about this article that says your startup will fail because you focus on gaps in the market?

It works a bit differently for bootstrapped companies, particularly if they don't have the ambition to revolutionize the whole market (they shouldn't) and instead focus on a niche where they understand the most critical problem.

A niche is a good place to be as a small business. You can focus on doing one thing well, and you have a pretty homogenous group of customers that will be glad to pay for your product if it provides sufficient value.

Fast-growing businesses have different dynamics.

The moment you want to be "the uber/waze/airbnb for y" instead of providing "the solution for problem x", you may already be overshooting a niche. You are not solving a problem by finding the real pain that people feel, you are trying to stuff a solution for a different problem into that niche as well as many other niches in that market.

VC funding is responsible for this. There is a lot of talk about idea validation and customer focus, but the VC incentive model (that the author doesn't question) requires thinking beyond niches. VCs want fast growth, high multiples. That won't happen in a niche that you slowly and carefully grew into. That happens by flooding a whole market with your solution.

So yes, if you are looking into building a hypergrowth company, it's likely not going to work. Thankfully, that leaves space for indie hackers and makers in the niches :)

I really like the hourglass analogy. And I do like the "whisper idea" concept too. Will use that from now on.

I think there's no doubt you are much more likely to be successful in an area where you have domain expertise than somewhere you don't. It's possible to succeed in something new, but far more difficult.