competing against goliath companies-how?

[Levin Witt]

Hello everyone,
I recently had an idea for a product that would take quite a bit of technical development. I recently found out that there are large companies doing similar if not the exact same things. I'm not sure how to compete against them. I know about value skew, but that's a bit unlikely when they have billions in revenue and thousands of engineers. I think maybe I could make a prototype of my product in maybe a year or maybe it wont even be possible. But I don't see how I can compete against these types of companies as they would always have a better product, along with authority and reputation. If I choose something that is smaller scale, the entry barriers seem too low. It seems like to me that any of my ideas that I deem to have sufficiently high entry barriers, are being dominated by large companies. How to go about doing this without any capital or connections? Anyone have experience taking on goliath?

 

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[Lyinx]

do what they are not doing.

Can they personalize their designs? or don't they have the time?
Do they come out to show you how to use it?
Does their product have a problem that you don't like and you're trying to fix?
Are they over pricing it? can you under cut them in price, and guarantee that it is as good (or better) than the product that they have spent a lot of time making?

if you try you to out-muscle them, you will lose.

on the positive side, if you simply make the product, and manage to capture 1% of the market share, you might be well off (but I don't think you'd be fastlane at that point, as you're just a copycat)

TLDR: don't do it unless you have something unique to offer that differentiates your product from theirs.

 

[Kid]

If you don't want to introduce large capital then your way would be to patent it and license it to those big companies.
Mind that sometimes big companies steal patented products.
Their way is to bleed you out of cash and get case dismissed in court.

 

[Kevin88660]

Hello everyone,
I recently had an idea for a product that would take quite a bit of technical development. I recently found out that there are large companies doing similar if not the exact same things. I'm not sure how to compete against them. I know about value skew, but that's a bit unlikely when they have billions in revenue and thousands of engineers. I think maybe I could make a prototype of my product in maybe a year or maybe it wont even be possible. But I don't see how I can compete against these types of companies as they would always have a better product, along with authority and reputation. If I choose something that is smaller scale, the entry barriers seem too low. It seems like to me that any of my ideas that I deem to have sufficiently high entry barriers, are being dominated by large companies. How to go about doing this without any capital or connections? Anyone have experience taking on goliath?

Depends on what you are doing. It is better for people who know the industry to share their insights.

Head on collision is definitely not a good idea but you can still be serving customers whom they do not want to serve. A new player usually finds growth in area that big and established players are not bothered.

 

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[Deleted50669]

Slice off a small offering they have and do it 100X better. Figure out which of their offerings have the most room for improvement, based on reviews / your own industry knowledge. Hyper-focus on doing that one thing exceptionally well, or in a way that introduces new value propositions the market hasn't seen before. Build a relationship with one customer, get to know them and their product experience intimately. Do this with a group of customers in the same space. Identify overlaps in need. That is your spec sheet. You can never steal the fridge from Google, but you can steal a snack. And they may buy that snack from you for lots of schmeckles.

 

[Levin Witt]

Hello everyone,
I recently had an idea for a product that would take quite a bit of technical development. I recently found out that there are large companies doing similar if not the exact same things. I'm not sure how to compete against them. I know about value skew, but that's a bit unlikely when they have billions in revenue and thousands of engineers. I think maybe I could make a prototype of my product in maybe a year or maybe it wont even be possible. But I don't see how I can compete against these types of companies as they would always have a better product, along with authority and reputation. If I choose something that is smaller scale, the entry barriers seem too low. It seems like to me that any of my ideas that I deem to have sufficiently high entry barriers, are being dominated by large companies. How to go about doing this without any capital or connections? Anyone have experience taking on goliath?

Slice off a small offering they have and do it 100X better. Figure out which of their offerings have the most room for improvement, based on reviews / your own industry knowledge. Hyper-focus on doing that one thing exceptionally well, or in a way that introduces new value propositions the market hasn't seen before. You can never steal the fridge from Google, but you can steal a snack. And they may buy that snack from you for lots of schmeckles.

I think this is the best way foreword, but I think a better question would be how many actually successful Fastlane entrepeneurs had to compete with big companies?

 

[Deleted50669]

I think this is the best way foreword, but I think a better question would be how many actually successful Fastlane entrepeneurs had to compete with big companies?

I don't understand the value of the answer to this question. Whether is was 1 or 1,000 of them, how does that change your action?

 

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[Levin Witt]

I don't understand the value of the answer to this question. Whether is was 1 or 1,000 of them, how does that change your action?

well I just want to find out how people who have actually done it did it. Because if it is only 1 out of 1000 then maybe I should do something where most of the competition would be small companies (this would of course mean the barriers to entry are also probably lower). I'm just looking for the best probabilities of success-do something hard with few big competitors, or something less hard with a lot more smaller competitors. Either way the quality has to one of the best in the field. At least that's how I have interpreted it.

 

[Walter Hay]

I think this is the best way foreword, but I think a better question would be how many actually successful Fastlane entrepeneurs had to compete with big companies?

I am sure that I am not the only one who has taken on the giants and bitten off a nice slice of their pie.

See:

Competing with MASSIVE Companies, Possible?​

Walter

 

[Lyinx]

well I just want to find out how people who have actually done it did it. Because if it is only 1 out of 1000 then maybe I should do something where most of the competition would be small companies (this would of course mean the barriers to entry are also probably lower). I'm just looking for the best probabilities of success-do something hard with few big competitors, or something less hard with a lot more smaller competitors. Either way the quality has to one of the best in the field. At least that's how I have interpreted it.

everyone made harnesses for horses out of leather, we started making it with synthetic. Now, everyone uses synthetic and can barely sell a leather harness

In Fords time, everyone used a horse and carriage, he upgraded the transportation mode by a little bit (it wasn't that much faster at the time, just different, and people seen the potential.

Soon after Ford, someone saw a way to "beat the giant" and made a pickup truck, and sold millions.

In recent years, Apple seen a way to improve phones by a bit, and made millions.
Dell, seen that the average homeowner would love a scaled down version, and made the computers a bit differently.
Tesla, thought people would like a car that ran on electric...

and the list goes on and on! every company out there that is hugely successful did something just a bit differently, and were rewarded for their innovativeness

 

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