We all like a challenge. When you’re starting a business it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the competition. When you are a VC funded startup who happens to be dominating the scene, there can be a tendency to sit back and allow yourself to breathe for a moment. That is, until a mega brand such as Facebook joins the the game. Then the fun begins.
Foursquare, who has been dominating the location-based services arena now has some heavy competition since Facebook launched Places. As ReadWriteWeb writes, the day after Facebook launched Places, Foursquare reported record signups. However, with such steep competition, everyone is wondering: How can Foursquare even stay in the game, yet alone win?
Sounds like the typical David and Goliath, right? In Malcolm Gladwell’s “How David Beat Goliath,” Gladwell asks the question: How do underdogs beat superior opponents? Within the article, he attributes the underdog’s success to two basic principles:
Operate in real time, much faster than the established powers; and
Replace ability with effort — especially effort targeted at the overdogs’ weakest points.
He goes on to write, “We tell ourselves that skill is the precious resource and effort is the commodity. It’s the other way around.”
So, what are some of [...]
