Competitive advantage increases revenue by 30% over the competition or decreases cost by 30%.
Here are five sources of competitive advantage:
- Recurring revenue
- Channel access
- Platform-based solution instead of singular products.
- Network effects in action (the value of the product increases with the number of users)
- Virality (not the same as network effects; users invite other users)
Channel access indicates you can connect to a group of customers that others cannot access. Perhaps your previous job gave you contacts throughout the industry that you can now leverage for your startup.
Perhaps you have found a social media channel, SEO, email, other marketing channels that work well. It takes some experimenting to find that channel.
In your pitch to investors, you want to highlight this as it’s a key differentiator. It may not be a sustainable advantage for the long haul, but it can be crucial to launching your startup.
Hall T. Martin is the founder of TEN Capital and a builder of entrepreneur ecosystems by startup funding through angel networks, funding portals, syndicates, and more. Connect with him about fundraising, business growth, and emerging technologies
