Working on a startup business can be difficult. People often complain about “startup culture”; they oppose the growth of pool tables at offices. They even make sarcastic remarks about how startups fail.
When it comes from your own industry, it feels the worst. Startup businesses are threatened by well-established businesses so that they can maintain the position they have in the market. They even constantly look down on these startups or refuse to work with them.
This is challenging for startups because most startup businesses want to provide something new, fill a gap, or resolve an issue. In short, the purpose of a startup is to disrupt. The first rule of disruption is that you don’t talk about disruption.
Why is this such a big deal? Why not announce to the world (and the tech press) that you're aiming to disrupt the competition?
These are some of the reasons why. Let’s keep it simple:
1. In almost all situations, the best case scenario for successfully disrupting competitors is for them to totally ignore you and what you are doing. This helps you develop what you need to (quietly) without a lot of outside influence. You can say, "We're just over here working on a small project, so please don't mind us. Your time is not worth it with us."
2. A "rational" competitor is what you want since an emotionally charged competitor will come after you and try to crush you out of pure ego and spite. They might not be able to smash you, but they can certainly hurt you a lot in the process. Additionally, reacting to their behavior will divert your attention from the overall disruption you're aiming to create.
3. One of the requirements for disruption is that your product or service must be subpar in some important regard. What makes it simpler for the competitors to ignore you is the fact that what you have doesn't satisfy the wants of the current client base. If you actually talk about how you're going to disrupt, you'll undoubtedly end up trying to persuade everyone that your product is not only superior to the market leader but also better for customers. That might sound like a wonderful thing, but it isn't since you shouldn't aim to make anything that is "better" than what already exists.
4. If you do that, you probably won't do much, but you will challenge the incumbent on their own turf. It turns out that they are very skilled at that game—in fact, they may even have created it. You need to work on something considerably less expensive, heavier, or easier.
5. Don't start by attempting to create something better for the loyal customers of the existing company. Your objective is to provide something "good enough" for clients that the competitor doesn't care all that much about, not to achieve that. You're probably doing disruption wrong if their top customers wouldn't laugh at the ridiculous lack of ability in what you're producing.
When should you bring up this amazing disruption you're doing, then? In the ideal case, use the past tense and say, "We've disrupted.." rather than "we are disrupting." The next-best option? when the path is clear and the success of your startup business is essentially guaranteed. Keep working diligently and silently on your till then.