[andrewflnr]

I've been thinking about this "narrow focus" idea, and I'm not sure how to or whether I should apply it to my own idea. I'm working on building a tool that's supposed to provide a free-form way to record and organize ideas. I think it could be especially useful to writers, and I use my prototype for task tracking. But if I target it to any specific group, I'm afraid it will get pigeon-holed as a "writer's tool" or "task tracking tool" or whatever, and it will be hard to generalize from there, especially once I start adding domain-specific features. How does one usually make the transition between niche and general markets?

[mjmahone17]

From someone who's never actually done the startup thing: when you feel like your product is good enough to stand alone, outside of the specific domain you originally targeted for, you likely have to have a second round of "initial" user acquisition, where you cater to, and iterate on, the needs of more general users you recruit.

[andrewflnr]

But if you try too hard to get that one domain, you may not reach a point where it's "good enough to stand alone, outside..." because, while your execution was good, you moved in the wrong direction.