Shanti’s Dispatches

This is something I wish more people understood, at least when you’re talking to them about your startup or startup idea. “Dunkin’ Donuts’ CEO Jon Luther says his company is helped by its rivalry with Starbucks: “[It’s] created an awareness for the category, and we’re benefiting.”

The chain’s success illustrates a little-advertised truth of business. Too often the financial pages read like the sports section, filled with winners and losers. Reality is more complex. In many markets, business is not a zero-sum game, and competitors create opportunities.

Full Article. Via: 37 Signals

Too often you tell someone what you’re doing, and even if they don’t say it out load (sometimes they do), they’re thinking it. “Oh, you’ll get crushed by X.”

There are way too many examples to list here of underdogs or new spins on ideas that took off and crushed (or simply carved out a niche) formerly owned by a dominant 400lb Gorilla in a space.

Reading Founders at Work only reinforces that point.

Just a few examples (though the landscape has changed since then) from the book:

Early spreadsheet market: First pioneered by VisiCalc, which got crushed by Lotus 1-2-3, which eventually got crushed by Excel.

Early OS/PC market: IBM’s game to lose, of course. They got owned by Apple, who eventually got owned by Microsoft.

Just goes back to my mantra on small business and startups:

You can bookmark this, digg this or check the cosmos