Editor's note: This article was contributed by Dennis Chu, co-founder of Bannka (@dennisatbannka). These are some insights he has gathered after founding Vantica and Bannka. [Startup Talk] is a column launched by TC Chinese to facilitate the exchange and sharing of ideas among entrepreneurs. If you're also an internet entrepreneur, feel free to share your voice and express your views here.
If you're an internet entrepreneur or product manager, you probably dream, like everyone else in this industry, of building the next Google or Facebook for the world. You have to make all kinds of decisions every day, and these decisions often determine the success or failure of your product. Here are some guiding principles that may help you think clearly and make tough but correct decisions.
1. Small is Beautiful
This is easy to understand; you don't have enough resources to build anything big. If your product or service is small, your costs will be low, and users will be more likely to try it. If they like it, they'll tell their friends, which is the only effective and zero-dollar marketing strategy.
2. Think about Users, Not (Too Much) Competitors
You need to discover what users want. I know this is easier said than done. That's why you need to spend a lot of time thinking, testing, and improving. If you spend all your time studying who you think are your competitors, you inevitably lose time to think, and you may end up not understanding your users, increasing the risk of making mistakes, which can be costly. You should do everything possible to avoid this.
3. If It's Hard, Reconsider
Most breakthrough innovations are surprisingly simple. If what you're building is very complex, rethink it. It might not be the thing that brings you success.
4. Data Portability
There are many successful and dominant services, such as Facebook and Google. What you need to do isn't rebuild your own social network or search service. Instead, you need to ensure your service allows data portability because people don't need to switch platforms to use your startup service. You need to provide tools to facilitate the movement of data.
5. Don’t Act Like a Dinosaur
You can't act like Google or Facebook. They have money and a bunch of smart people, giving them an advantage in doing almost anything. You need to think and focus on something small enough until you gain an edge. At the same time, ensure it’s scalable.
6. Don’t Copy
Many startup teams love copying others' ideas. Even disregarding reputation and self-respect, this is a dangerous strategy because you're not the only smart person in the world. Many other smart people are thinking about the same things. Copying something successful is simple, low-risk, and fast. But soon, you'll find yourself in a dog-eat-dog battle with your clone siblings, and no one will come out alive.
However, investing in creating something new gives you an "unfair advantage," which is a deep and accurate understanding of users, markets, and human nature—something copiers lack.
If you bring up examples of famous entrepreneurs who continuously copy, achieving widespread recognition in China, I can confidently say that the person you're referring to would definitely envy the founders of Twitter or Facebook. That's because when they go on TV interviews, they don't have to answer annoying questions from journalists.