Managing Partner at TURING COMPANY | ex-Director of Product Management | NASSCOM DTC Mentor | Fitness Enthusiast.
#Incumbent vs #Disrupter pitches Ideas are not necessarily unique. For every new idea, there’s that small team in an incumbent company working on the same. That team with the benefit of market knowledge. That team which enjoys customer trust and value chain proximity. In a lot of cases, #DeepTech startup founders owe their domain expertise to large, incumbent firms. In the role of a disrupter, it is important to comprehend that firm resources available in their prior roles are unavailable now. Your business pitch should reflect that too. Here are some ways in which Incumbent vs Disrupter pitches should differ… 1️⃣ ✨ Population v/s problem-based TAM Population-based TAM - India has an installed base of XXX million 2-wheelers of which XX million are above 125cc… Problem-based TAM – Of all motorbike owners, X thousand go on extreme-weather long drives that mandate a variety of safety equipment… A large incumbent perhaps has the resources to approach XX million installed base, but as a disrupter, define TAM closer to the problem. The larger market is the upside. 2️⃣ ➿ Linear vs non-linear business models It’s almost impossible to go up against an incumbent using established GTM channels, unless a critical juncture occurs (geopolitics, tech fiasco, roadmap delays etc). Fortunately, the same systems and processes can turn out to be quite rigid when requiring shifts up/down/side of the value chain. Force that shift. 3️⃣ 🕸 Feature vs 10X Feature Microsoft Teams has copilot that serves all its user categories uniformly. Any alternative needs to have a ‘10X copilot’ for its target user category. Think of your 10X – faster/ cheaper/ accurate/ energy efficient/ time-saving – feature. Just having the feature doesn’t cut it. 4️⃣ 📌 Moat vs Delight This one can be difficult to convince, even internally. Incumbents build moats with product bundles or worse, heightened exit barriers. Build stickiness based on delight factors, not barriers. Recently, I was part of the jury at a DeepTech awards event. The uprising has started, indeed.
Thank you so much !! These are very useful insights !!!!
Co-Founder & CEO, EdgeVerse | Ex-Group Director, Synopsys
3moVery well written. Your questions during the Jury round was indeed very insightful.