Building at the Application Layer: A 60-Point Product Will Lose to the Giants

If your startup is at the application layer, you are building your solution on a technology giant’s platform. Your barriers and differentiation may not be strong enough. A better way to win is to take the product and user experience to an exceptional level. Use your product and competing products from the user’s perspective. Experience the differences across the entire workflow and whether the products solve users’ problems. Any reasonably competent team can create a 60-point product. But a giant can casually produce a 60-point product too. Giants are mostly platform operators and will not spend too much time polishing and optimizing an individual product’s experience. If yours scores the same 60 points, there is little more to say: you will be crushed immediately. From 60 to 80 points, differences among startups begin to show. Getting to 80 may not be too difficult for a good product team. But truly winning requires 90 to 100. Every additional half-point to point is extremely difficult and challenging. Only by perfecting the user experience and workflow do application-layer startups have a chance to win.