Read on Twitter
1/n Thinking about how platform companies get built. Some startups ( @stripe) have massive, secular TAM that they can just drive a truck through for a decade or two -- even if it's not obvious day 1. Awesome -- this is the minority.
2/n For most companies, market size is the wrong question at the Series A.
3/n Sometimes the best way into a great market is through the smaller one next door, especially if there are switching costs.
4/n What startups often doing is trying desperately to grow to one local maxima in a problem-rich area, as fast as they can.
5/n Very large companies have been built by founders growing in that niche or slice of value, then continually choosing to take the pain of going "down hill" a bit, long before they see the crest of the hill they've climbed, in order to get over to larger, adjacent maxima.
6/n The advantages of the startup into that adjacent market might be their surface area with the user, or the trust with the buyer, or the core product/technology they've built, reconfigured with different workflows, or the data they've collected or the ecosystem they've grown...
7/n But hard, hard choices involved. The default is to get stuck at a local maxima or give up (sell?)... because the second market hill is just as hard (harder?).
8/n Mission gets discovered and market expanded as you go. How could it not, if you're learning along the way, and success begets more ambition?
