There is little that I think about more than trying to figure out exactly how a product can launch and grow. Typically you are “taught” to build something for a small set of users. Build a product inside of a niche and grow a super passionate following who is willing to follow you through the ups and downs of your product’s progression. This model is echoed repeatedly in YC companies. Mage, for instance, is a marketplace which is built for buying and selling magic cards. Their tool allows you to scan the cards and helps you list them.
On the flip side, some companies try to build the entire product and perfect it before launching to customers. Notion is one of the most famous examples of this type of launch in recent memory. Users are provided with a plethora of options to create the perfect…. X. Basically whatever they want. It’s amazing, except for the fact that it’s really hard to get started. What is that first X you’re going to build?
So the decision isn’t so much building a product for a niche vs breadth, but rather which challenge do you feel that you are more likely to overcome?
If you build broad, can you get an audience to engage? How can you do that? How can you ensure that you are top of mind for specific actions that a user accomplishes?
If you build niche, can you expand into other markets? Are you sure? How are you going to be perceived by the outside world? Will you be able to build something that eventually more people will want to be able to use?
Like most core product decisions, there are people who boldly push their thoughts on going one direction vs the other. My take is a little different. I believe that the thing to do is to build a product that can be used very broadly across tons of use cases but to market it to a very small niche. A product that doesn’t get too sucked into one use case mixed strong network of similar people who will work together on the product and help it grow – giving the best of both worlds.
Niche market + broad product = Massive company