[amelius]

> Not raising funds to stay small and happy

But in this winner-takes-all reality, is that possible? If your business concept becomes successful, what prevents a bigger player to copy it, improve upon it, and steal away your customers?

[aeden]

> But in this winner-takes-all reality, is that possible?

This is an assumption, and I would say, an invalid one. The reality is actually that there are many successful businesses in any given industry. This is thanks to the fact that one-size does not fit all. Niching down is a good way to build a small, profitable business, because you can address the needs of the niche better than those bigger players that have to try to solve the problems of many different customers using the same systems.

[unitboolean]

Good point

[_0ffh]

They might out-advertise you, but it's not at all easy to beat a well oiled team of three talented persons on the technical front. Just throwing money at a problem does not guaranty a superior product.

[john_moscow]

They can just offer an decent clone of your product for free. Given the popularity of the "grow now, monetize later" approach, investors will likely not see a problem with that.

[combatentropy]

> what prevents a bigger player to copy it, improve upon it

Its size can be as much a hindrance as a help. Big companies turn more slowly and are less likely to put out elegant ideas for the same reason a committee is.

Paul Graham writes about how his small online store was able to turn out features faster because he was leaner. I can't find it among his essays (http://paulgraham.com/articles.html) but Getting Real, a small book by the makers of Basecamp, says the same thing (https://basecamp.com/books/getting-real).

[amelius]

> Its size can be as much a hindrance as a help.

Big companies like Google know this, and often seem to structure themselves into small competitive groups.

[paulie_a]

Side note: Google has 4-6 competing messaging applications that are all sub par

[jasonkester]

Because, realistically, those big companies aren't interested in competing for your little $10k/month niche. Even a million dollar a year revenue stream would be seen as a failure for them.

[TrueSelfDao]

The bigger player may consider the idea more valuable in their hands.

[jasonkester]

Your $10k MRR niche won't be "app that lets people hail taxis, and network of contract drivers." It'll be "reception table plan designer for wedding coordinators".

Google is not now, nor will they ever be having a meeting where they decide to allocate a few hundred engineers and marketers to crush that space.

There are tens of thousands of niches like this that will pay for teams of 1-3 people to live on the beach after a few years of work.