Startup Funding

Five Competitive Advantages: Virality

Competitive advantage increases revenue by 30% over the competition or decreases cost by 30%.

Virality is different from Network Effects. Virality has users inviting other users to join.  Network Effects has the platform increasing in value based on more users participating.

I once had a CEO tell me “I wish I had designed for virality rather than revenue.” If you have virality built into your product, revenue will follow.

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)

Hall T. Martin

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

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