Flying submarine, no it’s a mouse trap

Founders occasionally are exposed to Shinyites :how to understand and remedy it !

AI generated image: courtesy - NightCafe

Recently when I was having a conversation with a founder, I was very impressed with his enthusiasm, and his ability to add array features to the product.

Equally, he was, like many of the founders suffering from shinyitis( it is a situation in which founders are attracted to every great idea and every shiny feature and want to somehow incorporate in their product).

This was his way to deal with competition. Lack of competition though suggests that the market is not mature. Treating everyone as a competitor, also compels you to compete with others at many fronts without a clear sense of direction.

If someone doesn’t want or need what you’re building, adding more features will not be an answer.

if your ego compels you to think about an audacious goal, keeping an ego in check, would help once you have proven minimum merchantable product[different from minimum viable product]. Market will always respond if you are heading in the right direction.

I would suggest look for areas that have some competition to explore further to see if  you are in a position to do things better.

Your focus should be to build some thing that lasts and grows and makes the competition irrelevant.

Onwards and upwards

(C) Sameer Babbar