

Niche 2 Win, Baby. - sachitgupta
http://500hats.com/niche-to-win

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bdunn
This especially applies to bootstrapped products, where the only recipient of
the profits is probably you.

Micro-niche could mean only _ever_ getting 1000 customers to pay you $30 a
month. Even if you had a few thousand a month in expenses, your personal
income will be higher than 99% of people who play the startup lotto.

~~~
brianbreslin
$30k a month is nice, as a sole or super small startup (under 3 people) or if
you are in a developing country. However these are the often derided
"lifestyle businesses". i for one support these types of businesses

~~~
patio11
Just an FYI: if you can tell a compelling growth story, a business which
presently has $30k a month of revenue could potentially be an attractive
target for investment. If it is growing organically it is only a wee bit away
from hitting $100k a month in revenue, at which point it could quite
reasonably sustain an eight figure exit. (500 Startups, for one, would _love_
to hear from you if you have a business on that trajectory.)

That said: there are worse fates in life than to be condemned to running a
business which just can't seem to break through $30k a month in revenue.

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wensing
When Stormpulse first launched we only covered hurricanes in the Atlantic and
didn't have radar. That focus allowed us to create a product 10x better for
that "narrow" concern (still possessed by millions) but made it insanely
difficult (read: neigh impossible) to have good conversations with investors.

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einhverfr
I don't know how this will go yet since I am just planning the process of
talking to investors right now but the approach I am looking t taking is:

1) Here's what we want to do.

2) Here's what we have done so far.

3) We can get there.

I don't know how this will go yet but it's the strategy I am looking at.

~~~
wensing
If you have revenues and you aren't profitable, don't bother. If you don't
have revenues, it might be worth a shot, unless you're a first-time
entrepreneur. If you're profitable, go get 'em.

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dm8
Dave, not sure whether you read HN; I have a question for you - I believe what
you are describing are "feature" startups. Which of course are derided by
everyone. Now you can always say we are going to be a product and then company
by covering growing beyond niche. But lot of times people don't believe in
your grand vision as it sounds BS. So how do you convince someone that you are
going to grow beyond niche? Or niche is just the foot in the door of market?

~~~
astrodust
They're derided because they won't be billion dollar companies, but if you
look at long-running "family" businesses, most of these exist because they own
some particular niche.

They're not exciting, but they are worth pursuing if that's your passion.

~~~
wensing
_they won't be billion dollar companies_

Huh, what? You can't be a billion dollar company by focusing on a niche? Is
transporting crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the Americas a niche?

 _They're not exciting_

I guess it depends if you can get excited about being massively profitable and
making your customers really happy by delivering shoes or lightbulbs, or if it
always has to be a shiny photo app.

~~~
astrodust
You're basically talking about the best case scenario. Typically it's much
more mundane.

Most of these niche companies aren't exciting to outsiders. They're doing
things that seem ordinary like making labels or floor mats for cars. Obviously
some people might be really motivated by such things.

There's nothing wrong with boring. Often boring is profitable, predictable,
and less prone to disruption than these "shiny" apps that are often a flash in
the pan, huge one day, sold for billions the next, and forgotten the week
after.

~~~
wensing
I find it easy to get excited about hard problems regardless of what the
company actually does externally. Particularly if that means internally
there's a wealth of cash in return for said hard problem solving.

I think you'd have to admit that shiny apps flashing in the pan, huge one day,
sold for billions the next, and forgotten the week after is also the 'best
case scenario'.

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WadeF
This is cool to hear from investors. Attacking a niche is one of the easiest
ways to get early traction. And the best time to go big is once you have a
couple wins in the bag.

