Strategy: Competitive analysis
Showing 52 articles for Strategy: Competitive analysis.
Two fundamentals that determine whether a business can scale
Bill Gallagher
March 12, 2025
Niche selection
9
Competitive analysis
7
- A 98-page strategy killed a billion-dollar company by spreading it across four fronts
- One customer type, one core product — even at multi-billion dollar scale
- Differentiation is best found through AI, new hires, and competitors' customers
Competitive analysis
YouTube
Why Most AI Startups Fail to Impress VCs
EO
March 5, 2025
Competitive analysis
9
Fundraising & VC
8
AI strategy & adoption
6
- AI adoption doesn't differentiate; founders must explain why the world needs their company.
- Defensibility requires non-AI technology, integrations, and workflows beyond the AI layer.
- VCs bet on founder conviction and decision-making velocity, not operational involvement.
Six-step go-to-market plan for SaaS founders
TK Kader
February 2, 2025
Niche selection
8
Branding
7
Competitive analysis
6
- Plan before you execute — most GTM failures skip this entirely.
- Your market segment dictates pricing, sales motion, and channel choice.
- A macro trend proves urgency; without one, the problem may not be real.
Competitive analysis
Podcast
Five standout frameworks on market selection and competitive advantage
Business Breakdowns
August 21, 2024
Competitive analysis
9
Niche selection
8
Business models
6
- Low barriers to entry, high barriers to scale—the real moat builder.
- Small regulated markets with clear leaders beat hot growth markets.
- Local geography and monopolies matter more than overall market size.
Competitive analysis
Podcast
Five essential questions to craft a winning strategy
Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth
July 25, 2024
Competitive analysis
10
Long-term planning
7
Business models
6
- Answer five interconnected questions to build defensible competitive advantage through integrated choice-making.
- Only two sustainable ways to win: lowest cost or differentiated—middle ground means competitors bully you indefinitely.
- Multifaceted capabilities and management systems create moats competitors won't attempt to replicate.
How to disrupt markets by breaking the customer value chain
EO
June 14, 2024
Business models
9
Competitive analysis
5
- Steal the one activity customers hate most from incumbents
- Three disruption types: remove pain, isolate joy, separate payment
- Profitable business models must be tested — value creation doesn't guarantee them
Competitive analysis
Podcast
Business strategy, power, and competitive advantage with Hamilton Helmer
Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth
May 5, 2024
Competitive analysis
10
Business models
6
AI strategy & adoption
5
- Most companies think they have a moat — almost none actually do.
- Counter-positioning is the only power available before you have scale.
- Operational excellence is a treadmill, not a competitive barrier.
Blue Ocean Strategy: creating markets instead of competing in them
How I Built This with Guy Raz
April 4, 2024
Business models
9
Competitive analysis
7
- Benchmarking competitors accelerates commoditisation — creation beats competition
- Non-disruptive innovation builds new markets without displacing any existing industry
- Never outsource your eyes: direct observation is how founders find real opportunities
Intuitive Surgical: how robotic surgery became a $140B monopoly
Business Breakdowns
March 20, 2024
Business models
9
Unit economics
7
Competitive analysis
6
- Robotic surgery fixes laparoscopic's worst problems: tremor, poor visibility, surgeon injury
- Instruments outsell robots 2.5:1 — procedure volume is the real flywheel
- 38,000 peer-reviewed studies and surgeon switching costs make the moat near-unassailable
Competitive analysis
Podcast
Cornelius Vanderbilt's war to destroy William Walker
Founders
March 11, 2024
Competitive analysis
9
Case studies
8
Management
5
- Vanderbilt funded a multi-country military campaign to destroy one man.
- Walker thought legality protected him from the world's richest private citizen.
- Steamships built his fortune; railroads made him richer than the US Treasury.
Long-term planning
Podcast
Good strategy starts with a clear diagnosis and an action agenda
Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth
January 21, 2024
Long-term planning
10
Competitive analysis
7
Deep work & focus
5
- A list of goals is not a strategy — diagnosis and coherent actions are.
- Focus is the fundamental source of power; diffusing effort destroys it.
- Call it an action agenda: state the problem, choose what's addressable, act.
Competitive analysis
YouTube
Three ways to find proven SaaS ideas without starting from scratch
TK Kader
January 14, 2024
Competitive analysis
9
Niche selection
7
- Skip product-market fit by targeting companies that already have it
- PE-acquired SaaS firms breed unhappy customers ripe for disruption
- Seed-funded founders in denial are handing you their proven idea
Competitive analysis
YouTube
How to build a living competitor analysis in SmartSuite
Layla at ProcessDriven
June 9, 2023
Competitive analysis
8
Automation & tools
7
- Spreadsheet competitor reports get ignored — here's the fix
- Action items from research flow straight into team task lists
- Share real-time views with investors without exporting anything
Competitive analysis
Podcast
How Sony and internal dysfunction killed Sega's gaming empire
Acquired
April 18, 2023
Competitive analysis
9
Business models
8
Management
6
- Sony didn't just beat Sega in consoles — it destroyed their arcade business too
- Sega's chaotic hardware decisions were panicked responses to an incoming Sony tsunami
- Steve Race said '299' and walked off stage — Sega died that afternoon
Competitive analysis
Podcast
How to build a second billion-dollar business using power theory
Acquired
April 4, 2023
Competitive analysis
9
Business models
7
- Half of S&P 100 profits come from non-original businesses.
- Expanding inside your power umbrella is radically lower risk.
- Co-action — new need, shared skills — drives 90% of new corporate value.