Competition and Business Strategy

How to compete vs. bigger Tech Giants?

22 resources (3 more when logged in)

articles looking at how startup entrepreneurs can hope to compete vs the likes of Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft: the “fi...

• Article How the Frightful Five Put Start-Ups in a Lose-Lose Situation
• Article The Opening - AVC
• Article Why the ‘end of the startup era’ could be great for entrepreneurs
• View all 25 resources

Marketing Strategy: Category creation

7 resources

a collection of articles about category creation (strategy for marketing)

• Article The Great Game of Risk Played in Category Creation, and Why the Winning Strategy is Aggression by @ttunguz
• Book Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
• Article The One Who Defines the Category Wins the Category - Craft Ventures - Medium
• View all 7 resources

Marketing Strategy

4 resources

Marketing Strategy

• Video A Plan Is Not a Strategy
• Podcast Creating a Category, from Pricing to Positioning – a16z Podcast
• Book The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk by Al Ries
• View all 4 resources

Franchising as Business Strategy

5 resources

using a Franchising strategy for business expansion and growth

• Article Five Franchising Strategies
• Video Subway - franchise: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
• Video Why Everywhere in the US is Starting to Look the Same
• View all 5 resources

Open source software as a competitive strategy: The case of Canvas LMS vs Blackboard:

3 resources (2 more when logged in)

How Canvas used open-source to compete vs Blackboard for dominance of the US higher education LMS market (learning management stystem)

• Article Blackboard to Merge With Anthology, Forming a New Edtech Giant | EdSurge News
• Article Instructure Announces Canvas App Center (2013)
• Article What Is A Learning Management System? LMS Basic Functions And Features You Must Know
• View all 5 resources

Exit strategies: sell your startup company - M&A acquisitions

5 resources (2 more when logged in)

Exit strategies: sell your startup company - M&A acquisitions

• Article Acquisitions -- If You Do Sell, Try to Make Sure It's At a Local Maximum – SaaStr
• Article Dealwise: The marketplace for buying and selling SaaS companies | Y Combinator
• Article How to Build a Startup that Gets Acquired – Startup Grind – Medium
• View all 7 resources

Platforms vs Aggregators - Tech Business Models and Strategy

10 resources

A collection of articles about the difference between Platforms vs Aggregators - Tech Business Models and Strategy

• Article Distribution and Demand – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
• Note Difference between aggregators and platforms - quote from Stratechery
• Article Market-Making on the Internet – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
• View all 10 resources

Examples of Exits for Entrepreneurs and VC Investors

13 resources (1 more when logged in)

a collection of articles with Examples of Exits for Entrepreneurs and VC Investors

• Article GitHub Billionaires Will Own More Microsoft Stock Than Its CEO - Bloomberg
• Article Website builder Wix acquires art community DeviantArt for $36M
• Article Microsoft Buys GitHub for $7.5 Billion – Andreessen Horowitz
• View all 14 resources

EdTech - Examples of Exits for Entrepreneurs and VC Investors

6 resources

a collection of articles with Examples of ed-tech Exits for Entrepreneurs and VC Investors

• Article Microsoft acquires social learning platform Flipgrid – TechCrunch
• Article Online Degrees Find a Spot in Workspaces in 2U - WeWork Deal | EdSurge News
• Article Acquisition Autopsy: Details—and Questions—Behind MissionU’s $4M Sale to WeWork | EdSurge News
• View all 6 resources

Competing vs. Amazon and bigger Tech Giants

11 resources (3 more when logged in)

articles looking at how startup entrepreneurs can hope to compete vs the likes of Amazon

• Article How to Beat Amazon
• Article How Amazon’s Bottomless Appetite Became Corporate America’s Nightmare | Bloomberg
• Article Big tech is built on predatory pricing. Why aren’t we talking about it?
• View all 14 resources

Exit strategies

6 resources (2 more when logged in)

A look at different exit strategies for startup entrepreneurs (going public, selling to a competitor, mergers acquisitions and more)...

• Article Here’s How Likely Your Startup Is To Get Acquired At Any Stage | Crunchbase
• Article Book: The Entrepreneur's Roadmap - From Concept to IPO - Feld Thoughts
• Article Airbnb's $1 billion funding round shows why tech startups still aren't going public
• View all 8 resources

Moats and Network effects - platform business strategy for competitive advantage

9 resources

A collection about Network effect, platform business strategy for competitive advantage

• Article A 40-Year Debate Over Corporate Strategy Gets Revived by Elon Musk and Warren Buffett - Harvard
• Article The Moat Map – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
• Article Google Maps’s Moat
• View all 9 resources

Business strategy - and sustainable competitive advantage

6 resources

A collection about Network effect, platform business strategy for competitive advantage

• Article A 40-Year Debate Over Corporate Strategy Gets Revived by Elon Musk and Warren Buffett - Harvard
• Video A Plan Is Not a Strategy
• Article What Is Strategy? - Michael Porter essay (1996) - Harvard Business Review
• View all 6 resources

Unique data sets, AI and competing vs. bigger tech giants with domain-specific products

3 resources (1 more when logged in)

articles looking at how startup entrepreneurs can hope to compete vs the likes of Amazon

• Podcast a16z Podcast: The Product Edge in Machine Learning Startups – 2017 - Andreessen Horowitz
• Article The Empty Promise of Data Moats – Andreessen Horowitz
• Article Does AI make strong tech companies stronger? — Benedict Evans
• View all 4 resources

Bookstores - New and used book sellers - Competing with Amazon

8 resources

Bookstores - New and used book sellers - Competing with Amazon

• Article Barnes & Noble Undergoes a Back-to-Basics Redesign - The New York Times
• Article Thanks to Bookshop, Indies Stand a Chance Against Amazon
• Article So You Want to Open a Small Press Bookstore/Artist-Run Space? A Cautionary Tale
• View all 8 resources

Walmart - retail business - Competing vs. Amazon

6 resources

articles looking at how Walmart is Competing vs. Amazon

• Article Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon - 2019 - CNBC
• Article Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America | The Guardian
• Article Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores
• View all 6 resources

Retail business

7 resources

articles looking at the Retail business

• Article As demand for bikes surged, Amazon got in the way - The Verge
• Article Online Retailers Can Be Forced to Collect Tax, High Court Rules - Bloomberg
• Podcast a16z Podcast: The Golden Era of Productivity, Retail, and Supply Chains - Andreessen Horowitz
• View all 7 resources

Book: Good to Great

2 resources

a collection of resources about the book "Good to Great"

• Podcast Amazon, Jeff Bezos and the book “Good to Great” author Jim Collins - podcast Recode Decode - Vox
• Book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't - by James C. Collins

Data Network effects - Moats and platform business strategy for competitive advantage

1 resource (1 more when logged in)

A collection about Network effect, platform business strategy for competitive advantage

• Article The Empty Promise of Data Moats – Andreessen Horowitz

Target - retail business - Competing vs. Amazon, Walmart

3 resources

Target - retail business - Competing vs. Amazon, Walmart

• Article Target to Buy Shipt for $550 Million in Challenge to Amazon
• Video How Kmart Went From Beating Walmart And Target To Bankruptcy - CNBC
• Article Target to acquire same-day delivery tech from Deliv

Wolt - Food delivery app from Helsinki, Finland

1 resource

Wolt - Food delivery app from Helsinki Finland - competing vs. DoorDash, Instacart, UberEats, and more

• Article Wolt closes $530M round to continue expanding beyond restaurant delivery – TechCrunch

Technology solutions for SMBs and Retail business

6 resources

Technology solutions for SMBs and Retail business

• Article HoneyBook raises $155M at $1B+ valuation to help SMBs, freelancers manage their businesses
• Podcast How Shopify’s network of small businesses can take on Amazon - Decoder
• Video How Robots Could Help Retailers Save Billions
• View all 6 resources

Examples of Exits for Entrepreneurs (Who didn’t raise vc money)

3 resources (1 more when logged in)

a collection of articles with Examples of Exits for Entrepreneurs

• Article How I Turned My Side Hustle into a Product Worthy of Acquisition - Indie Hackers
• Video Justin's: How I Built A Peanut Butter Company And Sold It For $281 Million
• Article How to Build a Startup that Gets Acquired – Startup Grind – Medium
• View all 4 resources

Dollar Discount Stores - Retail business

2 resources

articles looking at the Retail business

• Article The economics of dollar stores. How do dollar stores make money?
• Article Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America | The Guardian

Open source software as a competitive strategy

9 resources (1 more when logged in)

How to use open-source to compete

• Article Elite Colleges Started EdX as a Nonprofit Alternative to Coursera. How Is It Doing? | EdSurge News
• Article A Business Case for Open Source – Why You Should Contribute to the Open Source Community
• Article How I earn a living selling my open source software
• View all 10 resources

Lean startup

6 resources

A collection of articles and videos about the Lean Startup (thinking)

• Article The Case for the Fat Startup – Andreessen Horowitz
• Book The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries
• Article Resource Constraints | Fred Wilson, AVC
• View all 6 resources

Competitive strategy and analysis for business planning

4 resources (1 more when logged in)

a collection about Competitive strategy and analysis for business planning

• Video A Plan Is Not a Strategy
• Article Sustainable Sources of Competitive Advantage · Collaborative Fund
• Article Don’t Compete. Create! - Darius Foroux
• View all 5 resources

Network effect, platform business strategy for competitive advantage

9 resources

A collection about Network effect, platform business strategy for competitive advantage

• Article A Platform Strategy Won’t Work Unless You’re Good at Machine Learning - Harvard
• Article Why Some Platforms Thrive and Others Don’t - Harvard Business Review
• Article 16 Ways to Measure Network Effects – Andreessen Horowitz
• View all 9 resources