2 builders who never spoke to each other

Know one group better than any rival can

Years of accumulated understanding of a single customer group is the advantage a competitor cannot buy or copy quickly, and it compounds while everyone else chases visibility. Keeping the support queue yourself is the cheapest way to keep that understanding current, since it is where positioning ideas surface first.

The method

1. 01

   Treat knowing one customer group better than anyone else, and being known by them, as your durable competitive advantage - it takes a competitor years to replicate.

2. 02

   While competitors chase visibility, differentiate by understanding your customers more deeply than anyone else - that is what improves the work.

3. 03

   Keep answering support tickets yourself rather than outsourcing them, because that queue is the richest source of product and positioning ideas.

4. 04

   Position yourself where your skills, your interests and your personality overlap, because the odder that combination, the fewer people can compete with it.

5. 05

   Aim to be the only person doing the exact thing you do, and pick the subject you find genuinely absorbing so you can go deeper than anyone else will.

What it returned

• Justin argues nobody could arrive and out-compete Adam Wathan with Laravel developers without the same history of answering forum and Twitter questions.

• Bill Gates observed that Steve Jobs made product decisions from a sense of people.

• Support consumes roughly half of Bjorn's workday and he has held off outsourcing it because it is his best channel for learning what to improve.

• Given as the location of a personal monopoly.

Sources

• How to build a Shopify app – Björn’s journey to $300k in profitsJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Business is hard (even for profitable companies)! What are you struggling with now? · undated
• Your business isn't about finding a great ideaJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Your business isn't about finding a great idea · undated
• Your secret success fantasyJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Is it bad to want to be liked? · undated
• 🚀 How to Reach $1M ARR in 4 Months with No Paid Ads? - Trends.vcDru Riley · trends.vc · 🔧 Try This · 2026-04-29