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Most founders see 15 competitors and feel deflated. They should feel relieved. The buyer's move in a red ocean is to switch seats and let the market do the work.
Show Notes
Most founders see 15 competitors and feel deflated. They should feel relieved. The buyer's move in a red ocean is to switch seats and let the market do the work.
Featuring: Jeff Bezos
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One mental model each day in a few minutes. Habits, business, building products and thinking clearly. From Dru Riley, founder of Trends.vc.
"Your margin is my opportunity"
Jeff Bezos
Last week I ran competitive research on a tool I planned to build into Charm. A subreddit post writer. Something that generates Reddit-native launch posts matched to each community's culture.
I found 15 tools doing this already.
SubClimb. MediaFast. Redreach. Replymer. ReplyAgent. Okara. SubredditSignals. And more.
My competitive landscape doc was supposed to validate a build. By tool number eight, it had become a shopping list.
SubClimb does the job for $9/mo:
- Five AI-generated posts per day
- Twenty-five replies
- Subreddit culture matching
- Ban protection
I signed up and moved on to the next launch.
When you find a red ocean, the correct move depends on which seat you're in.
From the builder's seat, 15 competitors is a warning. Margins compress. Differentiation costs time. Each feature you build already exists somewhere else.
From the buyer's seat, 15 competitors is a gift. Quality went up because they're all fighting for your dollar. Prices went down because someone always undercuts. The tool you'd spend weeks building is already live at a price that rounds to zero.
I've written about red oceans before. The standard framework says find the blue ocean. Swim where there's space.
Or create a purple ocean.
The framework assumes you're a builder.
The buyer's move is the opposite. Seek red oceans.
When you find a red ocean, switch seats. Be the customer. Spend that build time somewhere you're the only one in the water.
Buy the red ocean. Build the blue (or purple) ocean.
Where in your business are you building something that 10+ teams already built for you?