Continuing my ad-hoc series on avoiding the entrepreneurial lottery for pure software Internet/mobile projects: another “unfair advantage” is deep domain experience around your product and market.
In this context, this means at least a few years experience in the domain, not “we’ve spent the past 3 months studying this market”. It means you have:
- A clear, “inside baseball” understanding of the markets, customer behaviors, dynamics and existing players
- Personal relationships with key leaders in the market (if you called their cell, would they take your call?)
- An understanding of how the Internet will disrupt the existing market or create the new opportunity
On the last point, there’s a balance: I sometimes find being in a domain too long can make it hard to think disruptively.
Without these advantages, you’re learning on the job, and you’ve got little or no advantage over the half-dozen other Internet competitors that are targeting your product/market. Success is possible, but the odds are more lottery-like.