How to spot a crap technology startup 1 - "No competitors"

Here are the signs of how to spot if you are talking to a startup company that is doomed. Might be a bit harsh and an exageration but I bet I'm right almost all the time on this. Here is the first thing they say that should make you run out of the door screaming.

We don't have any competitors

This is the bit where I have to resist the impulse to push half a grapefruit into their face James Cagney style. (I'm a nice guy really - honest)Almost every company has competition. If not a directly comparable product, then ask yourself how someone is solving the problem now. When you figure out that question then you have either identified:

• what the competition is (even if it is a different technology/approach etc) OR
• that you don't have a business

Am I being a bit harsh with the second one? Perhaps, but if your potential customers don't have a problem then they are unlikely to be motivated to buy your product. If you haven't thought this through, then the odds are you have the high-tech equivalent of an armpit fluff remover. Yes you can suggest instant messaging, the walkman and text messaging as being exceptions - successful products where a problem didn't exist before they were invented. However I suggest you don't - I still have that half a grapefruit and I'm prepared to use it remember.

Is your product really that unique and that compelling that it can invent it's own new niche? My experience is not. In fact my experience is that people who say they have no competitors are not paying enough attention to the market and are just plain wrong.

Instead of using the grapefruit I tend to use my time to try to help them understand that there are competitors and maybe they should consider them if they want to drive off in a Ferrari, ditch their wives/husbands and trade them in for a younger version.

Copyright Richard A D Jones 2005