Having worked with both Fortune 500 software giants and two-person startups, I can attest to the fact that dreaming is a good thing. Yet, I’ve also been frustrated as some of these same companies miss a key opportunity to pivot, misdirect resources toward a wrong audience, or fail to put their grand vision into practice.
The best tech entrepreneurs know how to make their dream a reality by being pragmatic and incorporating sound business advice at the right moments. As you begin to launch, here are key milestones that can make or break a venture.
Establishing a Niche
You have a great idea that has the potential to change the world. Think again. In most cases, your idea or product won’t and can’t be everything to everyone. This mindset turns great ideas into mediocre initiatives.
Right now, we are working on a launch plan for a powerful tool that allows employees to easily share information across an enterprise. Initially, the founder envisioned this idea taking off as a consumer app, capable of growing as large as Twitter. Despite lofty expectations, user testing revealed low engagement rates among consumers but extremely high interaction between ecosystems of employees in a corporate setting.
Once the company identified this niche audience, they found their strategy and allocated more resources into the enterprise version of their software. Although the founder was understandably disappointed to learn they didn’t have the next Twitter on their hands, he ultimately avoided pouring tens of thousands of dollars into an app designed to be everything for everyone.
By finding a niche, the company was able to truly solve a problem, design a more focused strategy, hire the right people, and ultimately deliver a better product. The company has since realized tangible success in a group of enterprises piloting the solution.
Dream big, but don’t miss an opportunity to truly and significantly impact a narrow group of people.