Can A Single Platform Do Everything You Want?
I was reading Feld Thoughts this morning and Brad alludes to something which makes a lot of sense to me:
But living in a single platform doesn’t work, unless it does everything I want…
I’ve been speaking to a lot of venture folks recently about a project I’m advising and they ask me the same question time and time again:
There are already competitors in the marketplace, why are you needed?
I think Brad nails it. To take this away from a finance context, lets put it into its simplest form, Grocery Shopping. I live about 5 minutes away from one of the best produce and meat super-grocery stores, Stew Leonards. This place is the mac-daddy of grocery stores. However, every time I go in to the store, I know I can only get 70% of what I need, and I’ll have to go to the A&P or DeCiccos to pick up everything else. Even though this is the uber-store, it’s not THE single platform.
There aren’t many places in this world that are one-stop-shops for everything you may need; even Walmart doesn’t have everything. In a very large market, there is room for many players as there are many services and products to offer.