Who carries the flag of victory? “The Horse” or “The Jockey”. For F1 it’s more inclined towards the Horse and for Badminton it’s more towards the Jockey.
For startups?
If you follow F1, you’ll be amazed by the performance of George Russel, currently driving for Mercedes, ex- Williams. George, whose F1 ranking was 15/22 in the 2021 season, stood 4/21 in the 2022 season (even higher than the defending Formula One champion for 2021).
What could have changed in 3 months…?
It was the car he was driving, well the “Horse” we referred to earlier.
At the same time, if you follow Badminton, you’ll be amazed by the performance of Viktor Axelsen who stands unchallenged with 467 wins, highest amongst the group for the past 2 years.
And interestingly, all the players use similar rackets in the tournament. Here, it’s more about the “Jockey”…
How about startups?
Just like sports, this varies amongst the category of startups, and as we classify them at Auxano:
- Category Creator: Businesses catering to a completely new category
- Market Creator: Businesses catering to a new category in an existing category
- Market Leader: Businesses looking to pioneer an existing category
- For Category Creators, the emphasis remains on the Horse.
Touch screen phones unlocked new possibilities for mobile phone users, which was effectively captured by Apple back in 2007. What if Apple chose to launch a transparent button phone..?
Good category..?
2. For Market Creators, the importance of the Horse and the Jockey remains equally important.
While it’s important to be in the right area, it’s equally important to be driven by the right set of entrepreneurs.
An alternate category to Windows and Mac, Android in laptops has been a category less talked about. While there have been several attempts to push these categories of laptops, very few pieces could be sold. Until the category found the right Jockey who knew the right time, right place & right audience for the product. (Unveiling soon…)
3. For Market Leaders, while the category of horses has already been validated by other existing players, to drive the business as a leader, the Jockey plays a major role. Finding inefficiencies, optimizing and pushing at the right moment to score the bulls eye.
Sony did a great job by creating a category of portable MP3 players called Sony Walkman in 1979, but could not withstand the competition by Apple Ipod in 2001. As a result of new features introduced by Apple, the Ipod took the market with a storm.
It is common to notice that as new categories are created (Category Creator), competition follows with more innovative solutions, opening new markets (Market Creator). Which for last, faces a large number of entrants as the barrier for entry reduces and results in few Leaders (Market Leader).
The above initially starts with high inclination towards the Horse and as the time progresses more towards the Jockey.
To believe in one of the two — Horse or the Jockey, would be incorrect to choose as both play a crucial role in developing a startup
How about future..?
Author:
Kanuj Jadwani
