When talking with other entrepreneurs, far too many say something along the lines of “we are too small to compete with the big guys”. The general mentality is that the competition is just so large and so strong that there is no logical way for them to fall 2nd place to a hungry and innovative start-up. As evidenced by the banking crisis and others, being “too big to fail” is certainly far from the truth as the banking system in the United States is on welfare as far as I am concerned.
Think Google just got lucky? When they originally launched there were at least 5 established search engines available on across the web who had saturated market share, and the appearance of being unstoppable. Remember Altavista? The reason that Google is dominating the market right now wasn’t because of some mysterious series of windfalls, but rather BECAUSE they were small.
How can being small be an advantage?
Being a small and “hungry” company gives you the advantage of compounding innovation. Think about how long it takes these giant companies to roll out any meaningful changes, shifts in policy or new products. By being a small company you are able to test your product in a more meaningful way, produce useful changes at a speed that very few companies have the opportunity to do. This pace of innovation over time can show a drastic difference between the quality of a product (especially in software) over even 6 months time.
So as Steve Jobs says “stay hungry, stay foolish” but most importantly use your unique ability to compound innovation against the big guys and stop thinking that being small is a downfall. The process of building something is what should be getting you excited to get up in the morning, and what will ultimately lead you to the success you are after.
