Elon Musk did something genius with Tesla early on: He knew the big money in the automotive sector was in selling to the masses. But he decided to start with a luxury sports car. Why? Because he also knew Tesla’s limitations as a new car maker: - Low production capability - Early electric car tech - No charging stations So Musk carefully chose this first ‘𝐛𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐢𝐧’ to target: Luxury car buyers who are early tech adopters. They have money. They live in specific areas. And they are more likely to drive for joy rather than work. That gave Tesla a much better chance to succeed than a mid-market car. So Tesla’s first model became an expensive sports car Roadster. Roadster made Tesla known. And it funded Tesla’s R&D to improve its technology and production capabilities. Geoffrey Moore calls this 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 in his book Crossing the Chasm. You carefully choose the first pin to hit based on your capabilities. This segment becomes your entry point into the market. You learn their needs, you make the best product for them, and you become known. You jump to the next one only after dropping that first pin. And everything becomes easier. You continue one by one by either adding new target segments to your existing offer or new offers to your existing target segment. The key to this strategy is finding your ideal first segment to target. These three questions can help you: - “What segment fits our strengths and weaknesses?” - “What segment is small enough to dominate and big enough to matter?” - “What segment is overlooked by bigger competitors?”
David Lee
2mo
Goes very well with the concept of "Niche Audience" and how the startup must focus on their niche first. Love your insight about Tesla and how you broke it down, thank you for sharing.
Ozan Irturk This is like saying you can become a pilot of a Boeing 777 by watching a bird fly through your back yard. First of all, there are no bowling pins in an early market that is made up of innovators and early adopters. Bowling pins only apply to the mainstream, and EVs are at less than 10% adoption, which means they are still far away from the mainstream. And second, you don't just select a bowling pin and think everything will be fine. The process involves selecting 6-10 bowling pins made up of self-referencing groups, that also have an influence on other self-referencing groups. Go back and re-read the article mentioned below.
Director of Innovation and Commercialization
2moOzan Irturk Have you seen the recent survey that shows "crossing the chasm" is frequently misused and widely misunderstood? The most common mistakes and areas of confusion are listed in this article: https://www.hightechstrategies.com/crossing-the-chasm-confusion/ The author of this article is Warren Schirtzinger who was the original creator of crossing the chasm, before the book was written. (My guess is you will be most interested in mistake #5)