In 2016 I co-founded a drinkware company.

It seemed insane to others

We would be competing with great brands like Yeti and Hydroflask.

We only had $200,000 while our competitors had hundreds of millions.

Today we sell over $100,000,000 annually.

A secret on how we did it:

Many aspiring entrepreneurs get stuck trying to invent a new product to sell.

It's a trap.

99.9% of successful businesses sell an established product in a new way.

"But if I sell something other people are selling I'll have competition!"

My response:

Competition always comes with demand.

If you're launching a product that has no competition there are only two possible reasons:

1. There is great demand and fortunately you were the first person on earth to tap into it (unlikely)

2. There is not much demand for that product

The most successful companies in the world are selling an improved derivative of an already successful product:

Netflix -> Video + Streaming
Tesla -> Cars + Electric Power
Apple ->Phones + Apps & Internet

You don't have to reinvent the wheel.

You do need a different strategy than your competition.

Use this process:

1. Find a product that has robust demand

2. Examine the strategies and strengths of the existing companies

3. Find white space

Ask: Where do your skills and abilities line up with white space?

When we launched Simple Modern there were established competitors everywhere. These companies were well run. I didn't see any way we could beat them at their own game.

So instead we considered what strategies they weren't pursuing.

The companies that were leading the insulated stainless steel drinkware market had initially found success in specialty retail (places like REI). Their success in these venues had shaped their retail pricing and margin structure.

They had higher retail prices and few variations.

We saw these opportunities:

Products built for physical retail and not e-commerce
Underutilization of Amazon

We had extensive experience selling online so we believed we could successfully compete in that white space.

We launched with lots of color and size variations.

It worked. As we saw initial traction we reinvested all our profits into online growth.

6 years later we sell more drinkware units on Amazon than anyone in the world.

Our success with e-commerce created future opportunities with partners like Target, Walmart, and Sam's Club.

Thanks for reading. In addition to leading Simple Modern, I also teach entrepreneurship at the University of Oklahoma. I tweet about what I'm learning along the way.

If you liked this thread please like or retweet it so it can be shared with others.

Due to the extraordinary amount of feedback I got from this thread, I recorded a podcast episode going deeper on the subject of innovation + differentiation.

Check it out here:

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2-innovation-differentiation-do-whats-already-working/id1644428516?i=10...