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Start-ups. Who cares what was tried before?

Pownce

Ok, I admit to being a bit enamored with Pownce. Kevin Rose of Digg fame seems to really understand how the InterWeb works. I can think of at least a dozen failed attempts at file sharing apps over the last few years. A whole raft of P2P file sharing utilities. I mean, even imeem started out that way before changing their entire business strategy and keeping only the name. But Pownce already had an Alexa ranking of about 2,500. And the general public STILL can’t even get the app.

There are two reasons for this. First, they focused on a problem and didn’t give a damn how many people had worked the problem before. Sending files amongst friends and family was never “solved right”.

Second, they got packaging right. If you develop apps for the web you need to understand your user. For HP/Snapfish, the user is “Emily“. Emily is HP’s target persona. For Pownce, the target is clearly the more cutting edge technocrati that live in a world between fashion, tech and rock bands the rest of the world haven’t heard of yet. And the Pownce team knows that this user base has an eye for detail, design and execution that “Emily” (Good Housekeeping) wouldn’t ever notice. It’s about tapping into a culture. And Pownce understands which community will initially get the company off the ground. There are other examples of this in action that were also working well in already crowded fields. YouTube WAS the “cool” video sharing place but those in the know still think Vimeo is cooler.

Vimeo

Social networks may be playing themselves out but the boys at Virb just keep cruising along.

Virb

Nailing that packaging and understanding your target persona means you can thrive in supposedly crowded markets. I’d go a step further and say that you’ve got to be driven by passion accompanied by an acute infatuation with “better execution”. In such cases, you’ll always find a market. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s always about “cool”. Emily may not be cool but she is Snapfish as much as this guy is a driver of the Pownce/Vimeo culture.

October 1, 2007 | Filed Under Inspiration, Start-ups 

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One Response to “Start-ups. Who cares what was tried before?”

  1. The weblog of Kelly Smith - web slave since 1994 » Blog Archive » How you can compete in crowded markets on October 1st, 2007

    […] It’s easy. Just look at how Kevin Rose plays the game over at Pownce. […]

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