There are many highly lucrative niche opportunities (that can still scale to $10mm+ revs) that would be impossible to identify or execute on without an inside industry expert who knows the big players, potential customers, and precise pain points.
When referring to "business people with an idea" with some degree of derision, it's productive for us to remember this mostly applies to the MBA grads with generic consulting/banking background and little industry-specific expertise.
really? many lucrative niche opportunities? Then surely we'd have heard at least some examples of that on techcrunch. Hell if their other coverage is any indication, they would have made it seem like the norm by now. But hey if your version is correct, then you can find plenty of success stories where a niche business guy, got a programmer partner without having to pay thousands of dollars in the process.
I just don't buy that. Looking for a programmer partner as a biz guy with just an idea, is the equivalent of looking for VC funding with an idea...it might happen, but chances are it's a huge waste of time.
We're going after a lucrative niche opportunity that requires significant industry specific knowledge (apparel industry in this case).
I've seen plenty of niche/vertical opportunities like this - mainly because I enjoy interrogating people who work in various sectors about their jobs and pain points.
These opportunities will not be on the radar of someone who doesn't have in depth knowledge of the sector in question. For us, the key was personal experience and knowing potential customers. We worked with them to build the product from the beginning.
As the article says, it's about having a team with complementary skills. That's often a product guy (either a business person or just someone who knows the sector really well) and some tech guys.
There are many highly lucrative niche opportunities (that can still scale to $10mm+ revs) that would be impossible to identify or execute on without an inside industry expert who knows the big players, potential customers, and precise pain points.
When referring to "business people with an idea" with some degree of derision, it's productive for us to remember this mostly applies to the MBA grads with generic consulting/banking background and little industry-specific expertise.