By Christopher Hann
Cliff Shaw had already founded and sold three companies in the genealogy space, all of which had to cope with the supersize competitor he confronted once again when he started Mocavo in 2011. Based in Boulder, Colo., his latest venture bills itself as "the world's largest genealogy search engine." But to get there, Shaw had to devise a business model and pricing scheme that would compete with Ancestry.com, whose 2 million subscribers and 11 billion historical records made it the reigning behemoth in the field.
What's a startup to do? To distinguish his company from Ancestry's subscription payment model and content supply, Shaw decided Mocavo would offer a basic service free of charge, with customers providing content. "We originally started as Google for genealogy," Shaw says. "We've now evolved into a giant community of users who want to contribute content online for free."
Mocavo customers have published newspaper articles, old wills, marriage certificates, even family bibles. Last December the company introduced a subscription service, Mocavo Plus, an enhanced version of its search engine. To solidify Mocavo's share of the genealogy market, Shaw designed a business that doesn't compete directly with Ancestry.com but provides complementary services. "To be honest, we don't think about them very often," he says, "because we're pursuing an entirely different model."
Of course, there's no single formula for coping with competition. Some startups partner with direct competitors, such as the vineyards from California to New Jersey that have organized cooperative wine trails. Others choose to go toe-to-toe. Some all but ignore their competitors, and some get a leg up by collaborating with an established, noncompeting company. Here are five strategies you can employ to take on your rivals and carve out your niche in the competitive landscape.
Play Nice
In wine country, it's common for vintners to compare botanical notes on pruning methods or canopy management in their mutual quest to grow a better grape.
"I think the wine industry is a really unique industry in that the more wineries that are in the area, the better," says New Jersey winemaker Michael Beneduce Jr., who started Beneduce Vineyards five years ago. "It's essential to be able to collaborate with each other, because that really elevates the quality of the whole region."
Beneduce recently returned from a two-week trip to visit wineries in Austria, where the climate and soil are comparable to those of northwest New Jersey. Everywhere he went, Austrian winemakers were eager to show off their vineyards and answer his questions. "We don't see our competitors as competitors," Beneduce says. "We see them as collaborators."
Be Bold
Zach Schau knew the bicycle marketplace was jampacked, dominated by global brands such as Trek, Bianchi and Fuji. No matter: In 2010 Schau, his younger brother Jordan and two friends founded Los Angeles-based Pure Fix Cycles, a colorful brand of fixed-gear bikes.
At first Schau figured Pure Fix would be an e-commerce company. But soon he set his sights on Sport Chalet, a 54-year-old sporting-goods chain with more than 50 stores from Utah to California.
How does a startup compete for floor space in a regional retail giant? With a lot of hustle, some bodacious innovating and, yes, a little luck. Such as the time Schau chatted with a Sport Chalet buyer at a Las Vegas trade show. The buyer introduced Schau to a "colleague" who had taken a liking to the Pure Fix bikes on display. That colleague turned out to be CEO Craig Levra; before long Sport Chalet was stocking Pure Fix bikes.
But Schau didn't stop there. Pure Fix continued to rotate the palette of its bikes, which now come in more than 15 color combinations. The company produced a glow-in-the-dark bike and a smaller model for younger riders. And it priced its bikes to sell, ranging from $325 to $399.
Read more: HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment