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Understand your customers

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 cobble together today, the spreadsheet, the intern, the doing-nothing. 'No competitors' often means 'no market'.

Go deeper

2 resources, 1 link-checked.

▶️ Video
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Michael Seibel's crisp framing of holding the problem and customer tightly while holding the solution loosely, the mindset that keeps competitor and problem research honest. Free and canonical.

How to Plan an MVP

On Y Combinator Startup Library by Michael Seibel ~15 min

  • Hold the problem and customer tightly, the solution loosely
  • Talk to a few users before building, a little research beats none
  • 'No competitors' often signals a weak problem, not a blue ocean
  • Iterating changes the solution; pivoting changes the problem
Open ycombinator.com →
📖 Book
Paid Intermediate

The best book on positioning against competitors by understanding the alternatives customers actually consider. Directly turns competitive research into a market advantage.

Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It

From aprildunford.com by April Dunford ~200 pages

  • Your real competition is often the status quo, not another product
  • Start positioning from the competitive alternatives your buyers consider
  • Differentiated value comes from your unique capabilities vs those alternatives
  • Choose the market frame that makes your strengths obvious
Open aprildunford.com →

People also ask

How do I research my competitors properly? 2 → What tools should I use to track competitors and market landscape? 2 → How do I position against a bigger, better-funded competitor? 2 → How do I size the market and figure out if it's big enough? 2 → How do I understand the competitive landscape for an Indian market specifically? 2 → How do I do competitive research when my competitors are private and share almost no public numbers? 3 →

Also in How Founders Use AI

How founders actually use AI for this, over in Market Research.

How do founders validate a startup idea with AI in a weekend? 20 → How do I use AI to map competitors, pricing, and positioning? 22 →

Also in GTM

The same ground, over in Who you sell to, and why they care, our GTM track.

What is an ICP and how is it different from a persona? People use both words for the same thing. 4 → What is positioning in plain English, and why does everyone insist we have got it wrong? 3 →
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