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From what I've seen over the past 4-5 years being in crypto, web3 projects have five ways to win over competition, and that puts them into a much better position than most of the web2 business world, where they really just have the first three options.
One caveat before we start - all this is valid (aka makes sense) only if you are working on a product/service that solves a problem and know for whom you solve the problem. Let's take these as prerequisites for anything potentially successful.
In any business, you can win by being faster, having more resources, or having some unique information, or, in the case of web3, you can be a better community builder. Let's look at each one of these. Oh, and there's one more which you will love - it's having better tech 😉
So you are faster => you can do things faster than anyone else. The analogy would be, you basically outrun them!
Many people would mistake this for a sprint - like launching the first MVP (Minimal Viable Product) faster and winning. But that's not the case 👎 Rather this means you are faster in the marathon of going from 0 -> 1, from 1 -> 10 and then from 10 -> 100 and 1000, and beyond. It means you are faster every step of the way to dominance in your niche. And it's always a long-term game.
And even though many founders mistakenly think you can do a messy first win (that you absolutely can!), and be done with it, this is about consistently winning for relatively long periods of time. And that means you have to have your shit together. You have to have your team fully on board with what you are doing and where you are going. It means you have a process to ship and test fast and none of you is afraid to fail.
It means a lot of other things that could be summarised under the "growth mindset culture" and a rock star team labels. If you have that - you hare half way there.
So you have more/better information => you know what others don't know. This means, you know it before they figure it out. It's temporary advantage. In trading this would be insider information. In business it can be called foresight or it can be called great network, which is knowing people with great foresight and/or great network. There is always someone somewhere already living in the future. Such friends or contacts then see things others deem impossible or not-yet-possible or practical.
"If you have information advantage, you can skate where the puck is going to be, not to where the puck is now," to use the ice-hockey analogy.
This can also mean that you can do the right things, you maybe able to do them cheaper or with less effort, and you can do the things not many people know about, which can give you a first mover advantage.
Many people think that first mover advantage means no one else is doing what they're doing but that's almost never the case. There is this thing called "convergence of ideas" and it means that many teams and individuals at certain point in time converge to a certain novel idea or set of ideas. And that sometimes leads to simultaneous invention. By the way, the fact that you're never alone in thinking about something is a good thing 😁 not a bad one.
So you have technology they don't - like a blockchain => and then you can get a head start before they realise what's going on and will try to catch up to you. If they have more resources such catch-up can be pretty fast, unless you already have PMF (Product Market Fit) and a big enough community that can sustain you during a fight.
I'm not going to spend more time on this one because it is ephemeral and irrelevant in the long run. But I wanted to point it out because for some use-cases and products, technology is a short term differentiator.
So you have more resources => which can be reduced to "you out pay them." Having more resources is, of course, great and you should always consider if this is not one of the possible ways forward for your project. But many times more resources mean more baggage and more issues you have to worry about, outside of building the best product.
If you know me, you'd know that I believe that out-paying them is almost never the best strategy. There are markets where it occasionally makes sense to try to win this way; many hardware and physical products could go a long way with this strategy. Not web3 though.
Maybe you're thinking - wait, when I have more resources, I can hire better people and more people means I should be able to build a better product! And I can pay for better and more distribution channels, which in turn means I should be able to get more users/clients/customers faster!
Again, this causality almost never works in real business.
Simply having more of something, doesn't mean better, nor more efficient or effective.
More people means more management and coordination overhead, more politics, more troubles, less agile culture and way more energy consumed on internally focused activities. It almost never means better or faster product releases which is the only thing that matters for your customers and your future.
To close this one - you need money to build and grow and survive until your product catches fire. Yes. But you should not be aiming for more, unless it's for more customers and raving fans! Which takes me to number five - a secret weapon of web3 projects.
So you can build better community => and I believe this one is a key ingredient for any web3 project in the current market environment.
What does it mean? Better community means - more long term focused, more aligned with vision and values of the team, more active participation and mutual benefits focused. It's not "one airdrop and I cash-out and leave" kind of community.
It means community of people who are excited and helpful at the same time. They're excited about what you do, what value it brings to them now and in the future. They're helpful because they feel like part of "something bigger", they may even feel like part of the team.
I belive you all know what I mean, but it's a big topic on which I have several more writing pieces in drafts, so I'll come back to it soon.
As I said at the beginning, you can win in any business if you are faster, have more resources, or information, or, in the case of web3, you can have temporary unique tech advantage and be a better community builder.
Community in the way I am thinking about it means more than your users, clients and fans, it means your partners, suppliers, your team and your alliances. In corporate speak they would call it "all stakeholders." Community is also your best distribution channel in web3.
Let's build better communities!
I certainly hope you will stick around and we will connect more.
If you like it - bring your friends - they may love it!
Find me as BFG (aka BrightFutureGuy) and let's connect!
- on X: https://twitter.com/aka_BFG
- on Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/bfg
- Web3 Magic Podcast on Substack - https://www.web3magic.xyz
Collect this post as an NFT.
