
Ask HN: I think I can take over an entire market; change my mind. - startup_ken
I have been an entrepreneur for 11 years. My current company is entirely boot-strapped. We have accomplished a lot in our time, including building a company from scratch, pivoting, winning a &quot;bet the company&quot; lawsuit, and shipping hardware products, which is HARD.<p>Currently, we are an OEM hardware&#x2F;software product company for the Oilfield services sector.<p>Over time I have made several observations that lead me to believe that a funded, well-run startup could attain a dominant market-share position (50%+.)<p>The existing market is extremely fragmented with almost 100 competitors and almost no barrier to entry.<p>My gut is telling me to raise capital and pivot our business to compete with the existing OFS companies in this sector.<p>We would aggressively and intelligently achieve market share dominance by simply outcompeting the existing competitors on every level. Culture, Process, International Supply Chain, Optimized Service Delivery, Optimized Logistics, In-House Technology Stack.<p>Here’s the biggest question I need outside perspective on:<p>How do I know that what I see is a REAL market opportunity? I have been involved with this sector of oilfield services for most of my career. I spend a lot of my reflection time thinking about how to improve this sector, the sector that I am passionate about. How can I be sure that I am not walking around with a hammer and this is just another thing that looks like a nail?
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user_agent
This book is going to help you a lot with establishing whether you really can
do it or maybe only have been fooling yourself:

Nail It then Scale It: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Creating and Managing
Breakthrough Innovation, Nathan Furr & Paul Ahlstrom

It's basically a unique primer on the exact topic you've been struggling with.
I would buy it even if the price was like 10k USD. I think that speaks for
itself.

I wish you luck!

No doubt that clarity of thinking and weighting risks is a no. 1 priority.

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startup_ken
Thank you! This is exactly what I need.

