3 builders who never spoke to each other

Change one rule of a format people know

Novelty without a teaching bill comes from taking something people already understand and altering a single rule, or rebuilding a tool you used and disliked stripped of everything you never needed. Copying the surface of a rival gives you none of the reasoning that made it work, but an unoriginal category with an opinionated take lands fine.

The method

1. 01

   Take a format people already understand and change one rule, so you get novelty without having to teach the basics.

2. 02

   Manufacture an advantage by questioning the category's default rules - what nobody has tried, and why everyone does it the same way.

3. 03

   Build the simple, fast, good-looking version of a tool you already tried and disliked, stripped of everything you personally did not need.

4. 04

   Attack an incumbent where their setup flow is retrofitted rather than native: let someone create the account, connect payments, build the site and list products entirely from a phone.

5. 05

   Ride an existing marketplace before building your own demand: let someone paste a listing URL from a big platform and generate their own branded store from the scraped data.

What it returned

• 13

  At around 13, Jason Fried downloaded the FileMaker Pro music cataloguing tools available on AOL, found them ugly, complicated and overloaded with features he did not want, and built Audio File instead.

• PoolTogether reworked the lottery as a no-loss version and MimirQuiz reworked the quiz format.

• Dan Martell's version: the world rewards courageous decisions.

• One mobile-first rival allowed the entire store setup from an app while the incumbent only allowed editing existing products.

Sources

• Somebody Build This #1 - Shopify for the next generation of creatorsChris Frantz · chrisfrantz.com · Mobile · 2021-03-16
• Fish where the fish areJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Finally, give them what they want · undated
• Ideas aren't cheapJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · How to find good business ideas · undated
• Twenty dollars in an envelopeJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Twenty dollars in an envelope · undated
• When you can't winJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Be like Kirk: create your own unfair advantage · undated
• Play-and-Earn: Digital Scarcity, Economies, Learn-to-EarnDru Riley · trends.vc · ☁️ Opportunities · 2021-12-18