Hey,
This week I talk about why your startup should stop trying to be everything to everyone.
Also;
📸 - Social Snapshot- Deepseeker Dominance
📊 - Nvidia stock plummet
🎙️ -Founder philanthropy with David Goldberg
Welcome to issue 106.
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Your Pitch Deck Probably Sucks...
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Social Snapshot
💰Can this AI model deliver by Litseeker on X.
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From Founder to Philanthropist: $1.3B Deployed by David Goldberg - EP 70
In this episode, I chat with David Goldberg who went from founder to philanthropist. Learn more about the Founders Pledge and how techpreneurs are making an impact with charitable donations.
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Data Corner
AI Battle?
Nvidia lost a record-setting $560 billion in market cap due to DeepSeek. It discusses DeepSeek’s powerful new AI model that rivals the capabilities of U.S. giants like OpenAI and Google. This release caused shockwaves through the market and impacted Nvidia, a key player in the high-end AI chip market.
Nvidia’s stock plummeted and erased more than half a trillion dollars from the company’s market capitalization. DeepSeek’s achievement has ignited a debate about the future of AI development, the role of hardware in driving AI progress, and the potential for unexpected challenges to the current dominance of U.S. tech companies
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Raising Capital for your startup?
Thunder's mission is to guide founders toward the right path to reach their North Star, be it through securing equity or debt financing or navigating the path to a successful exit.
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Why Your Startup Should Stop Trying to Be Everything to Everyone
One of the most common mistakes I see founders make is trying to build for everyone. Cast a wide net, bring in more users, and become the next big thing for all to conquer that TOM. But chasing everyone means serving no one well. It’s the entrepreneurial equivalent of juggling flaming torches while riding a unicycle, bold, but doomed to fail.
You can't always be a Super App
Super apps are the perfect cautionary tale. You’ve probably heard of WeChat, right? They dominate in China, offering everything from messaging to payments and even food delivery. But their success is an outlier, not the rule. For every WeChat, there’s a graveyard of failed attempts at creating "the next super app." Even tech giants with bottomless budgets have tried and flopped.
Remember Uber’s attempt to branch into freight, scooters, and even short-term staffing? (Are they still doing boats and choppers by the way?) It spread them so thin they nearly broke their core business. Their ride-share product started suffering because they were too busy chasing other opportunities that diluted their resources and focus.
Trying to do everything from day one is like building a house with no foundation. Sure, you might get walls up quickly, but they’ll crumble under the first gust of wind.
Why Niche Is Your Best Friend
You’ve probably heard of the “100 true fans” concept, which argues that you only need a small, loyal customer base to thrive. This applies tenfold in startups. Find your niche, serve it better than anyone else, and dominate it.
Look at Stripe. When it launched, it wasn’t trying to disrupt all payments; it focused on making online payments simple for developers. That’s it. They didn’t care about being the next PayPal or Square at the start. They solved a very specific pain point, did it well, and scaled from there.
Build with your customers, not around them
How do you nail your niche? Talk to your customers. All. The. Time. I say it all the time. There’s nothing more valuable than real feedback from the people who will (or won’t) pay for your product.
Ask yourself:
- What’s their biggest frustration right now?
- How are they solving it without you?
- What would make them choose you over anyone else?
Your job isn’t done after the first conversation. Keep talking to them. Building in a vacuum is a shortcut to irrelevance. Don’t assume you know better than your customers; let their needs guide your product roadmap.
Execution Over Ideation
If you’re reading this thinking, “Okay, I’ll nail my niche and grow from there,” congrats, you’re ahead of most founders. But remember, ideas are cheap. Execution is where the winners separate from the also-rans.
Focus your energy on delivering value to a tightly defined market. Nail that first segment before even thinking about expanding. Build a product so indispensable that your customers can’t imagine life without it.
[More of] my 2 cents
Startups don’t fail because they aim too small; they fail because they aim too wide. Focus on owning a niche, obsess over your customers, and execute relentlessly. Once you’ve conquered your corner of the market, then you can think about expansion.
Until then, remember: it’s better to be loved by a few than tolerated by the many.
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Free Fundraising Resources
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🗓️ Your 12-month fundraising plan- Download it here
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Let's stay in touch:
- Written by Jason Kirby - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonrkirby
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