[throwaway2016a]

Also, make sure not to confuse understanding your customers with understanding how the industry works.

Some of the craziest and successful startup ideas come from people who don't understand the industry at all and if they had they probably would have never tried to do what they did.

[philipov]

Survivorship bias. Some of the biggest flops also come from people who don't understand the industry at all, and if they had they probably would have never tried to do what they did.

You can't understand your customers if you don't understand their industry. Picking customers is like investing: if you pick a bunch of customers that are not going to win their industry, you won't thrive either.

[inopinatus]

That may be true, but it isn't a reason not to try. Heck in the process you may learn the industry, just too late for current venture. It is however a reason to be willing to recognise a flop and abandon it for something else.

[philipov]

Yes, but what I'm actually trying to do is cast suspicion on the dichotomy between industry and customers. Industry is not a thing that exists. There are only people, their objectives, their resources, and their problems. Those are the things that need understanding.

[throwaway2016a]

Perhaps I chose the wrong word. I was looking for a word to describe the biases of people entrenched within an industry.