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Distribution vs Product: Which to focus on? | Preetam Nath
What should an early-stage tech founder focus on - Distribution, or {roduct? Let's explore with the example of Microsoft Teams vs Slack.
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Always an interesting discussion 😁
I think an (mv)p and the market (where distribution happens) are quite intertwined with each other at the beginning. I mean, you can't make an mvp without knowing your market.
But after finishing the mvp, I would just go all out distribution. With the feedback from distribution I would finetune my balance accordingly.
Totally second all of that.
Good article! I like the concept of getting a product to the point where it's "just bad enough to tolerate and just good enough to not switch" is the sweet spot for starting to go all-in on distribution :-)
It's astonishing how Microsoft copied Slack and now managed to become the market leader. Surely, it's because MS leveraged its existing distribution network they built over the years selling to large enterprises.
Nevertheless, the number of users may be misleading because MS gives Teams away to schools. Lots of schools switched to remote classes due to pandemic. I'd want to see a chart showing number of companies using Slack vs Teams. Do you know if it's possible to get such information?
That's exactly it, MS Teams has 115 million users VS Slacks' ~15mn. Slack hit a wall in terms of how much effort and money will be needed to expand into other areas to not just be a one-trick pony.
With the example being used being Microsoft Teams vs Slack. Slack just got sold for 27 billion and Teams most likely won't be around in 10 years. So product seems a really good point of view.
Also for an early-stage tech founder, you're not going to have hundreds of multinational companies to force your product on to people.
Personally, I think focusing on how to market is really important but if you have something poor to market you're not going to do that well anyways.