Customers & Research

How do I understand the competitive landscape for an Indian market specifically?

A starting point

Don't assume the US playbook maps onto India, pricing power, distribution, and willingness-to-pay are wildly different. Study who Indian customers actually pay today (often informal or offline alternatives), read Inc42/YourStory for the local landscape, and size the reachable market bottom-up in rupees.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it's here.

Read

📄 Article
India Free Intermediate

Defining, Measuring And Solving Product-Market Fit Puzzle For Startups

From Inc42 by Inc42 ~15 min read

Why we picked it

A grounded India-specific feature with hard-won lessons from BigBasket, Razorpay, BrowserStack and Instamojo on understanding the Indian market before building. Inc42 is the reference publication for the Indian startup ecosystem.

  • Think 'market-product fit', understand who and why before what and how
  • Founders fail by obsessing over the product and ignoring what the market wants
  • Iterate frequently and expect to fail on most attempts
  • Track active users and churn, not vanity metrics like downloads
Open inc42.com →
📄 Article
Free Intermediate

16 Startup Metrics

From a16z by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) ~15 min read

Why we picked it

The reference primer on the metrics and market-sizing logic investors use, including bottom-up market sizing that keeps founders honest about how big a market really is. Canonical a16z source.

  • Size markets bottom-up from customer count and willingness to pay
  • Know the metrics that actually signal a healthy business
  • Distinguish real traction from vanity metrics
  • Use consistent definitions when comparing yourself to the market
Open a16z.com →

People also ask

How do I research my competitors properly? Go beyond their homepage: sign up, read their reviews, their churned-customer complaints, their job posts, and their pricing page. The gold is in w... Beginner 2 resources → What if my customers say they have no competitors, is that good or bad? Almost always bad, because it usually means the job isn't painful enough to spend money or effort on. If nobody's built anything, ask what people c... Beginner 2 resources → What tools should I use to track competitors and market landscape? Start free and manual before you pay for anything: Google Alerts and their newsletter for moves, G2/Capterra reviews for weaknesses, Crunchbase for... Intermediate 2 resources → How do I position against a bigger, better-funded competitor? Don't fight them on their strengths, reframe the category so your strengths matter most. Anchor on the competitive alternatives your best customers... Advanced 2 resources → How do I size the market and figure out if it's big enough? Build it bottom-up, not from a scary McKinsey top-down number: who exactly is the customer, how many are there, what will they pay, and how will yo... Intermediate 2 resources → How do I run customer discovery as an Indian founder building for Indian users? The frameworks are global but the field is local: Indian buyers often say 'yes, nice' to your face and never pay, so watch what they do, not what t... Intermediate 2 resources →