How to create a competitive advantage for your startup to grow faster + and what to do if as a founder with no resources, experience or connections

Having a competitive advantage is the secret of any company's success. Knowing how to create one is the most valuable asset for any founder.

Hey everybody, welcome back to product market fit 🚀📈⚡

On this article I want to talk about something that isn’t discussed much when talking about how startups succeed: The competitive advantage

You see, having a competitive advantage is everything

• The first person to build a well and have access to water in the town had a competitive advantage.

• The person that found out had oil in his land had a competitive advantage.

• The person that knows how to build something nobody else knows has a competitive advantage.

• The person that has the direct connection with a big company looking for a solution to a problem has a competitive advantage.

These are limitless examples of how having a competitive advantage can allow you to create a good business. But, what if you don’t happen to own the land where oil is?

On this article I am going to share:

1. What are competitive advantages and what types there are

2. How to access, develop and exploit your competitive advantage

3. Premium: What competitive advantage you can create if you have no money or experience and how to do it

Let’s get to it! But first, some great music as always 🔥

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Ok, so let’s get to it. This article is not going to be an exhaustive study of every competitive advantage that a startup can have, but rather some super practical information to make you question your competitive advantages and how to leverage them to make your startup grow faster.

1. What are competitive advantages and what types there are?

Competitive advantages are factors that allow a company to either:

• Produce better products

• Produce cheaper products

• Generate more sales

Competitive advantages are attributed to multiple factors such as:

• cost structure

• branding

• the quality of product offerings

• the distribution network

• intellectual property

• customer service

Now, this is great, but how does it apply to my startup? 👇

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How to access, develop and exploit your competitive advantage:

Find and use the competitive advantages you have as a founder

1. Find out what outstanding soft skills you have

As a founder you should ask yourself (and know your team as well)

• What am I really good at?

• What do I really love doing?

• what do people ask me for help for?

• What’s my mission?

2. Figure out what you know more about than anyone

You should ask yourself and your team:

• What industry’s know how do we have?

• What can I do better than most people?

• What do we know better than most professionals?

Maybe you can develop AI products because you’ve been doing it for 5 years, or maybe you know so much about a particular industry. That’s your competitive advantage. Make sure you use it.

3. Exploit your resources as much as possible

🚨🚨 The other day I was talking to an entrepreneur building a SaaS for personal trainers.

He had previously amassed a huge following on instagram with his exercise content.

When I asked him if he was using that channel to get customers he told me that he wasn’t because he didn’t want to influence the buying process. For me that is a huge mistake. Your competitive advantage is what allows you to grow your startup. Whenever you have one. Use it!

So, as resources you can have:

• Connections: connections are everything. If you know your potential clients personally it will be easier to sell your product to them. If you know many investors personally it will be easier to fundraise, etc, etc. Network as much as possible and make sure you use the connections later.

• Personal brand: A good personal brand is just another distribution channel for your product, if you have it. Use it!

• Money: well, of course it’s a great competitive advantage if you have it!

Translate your competitive advantages as founders to your startup

1. Use your industry know-how and technical skill to create a superior or specialized product

2. Use your connections and personal brand to distribute your product

3. Create a loop to move from competitive advantage to defensibility

The more you differentiate your startup, the more it grows, the more you can fund it and move towards defensibility

The four defensibilities of the digital world

PREMIUM: THE BEST PATH TO CREATE A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AS A FOUNDER WITH NO CONNECTIONS, RESOURCES OR EXPERIENCE 👇