Email and Spreadsheets Have Killed More Startups Than Other Startups

Most first-time entrepreneurs celebrate being first.

They celebrate having no “obvious” competitors.

But once you think in terms of jobs,

We hire products to do a certain job.

It’s that simple.

Jobs are timeless and transcend categories.

When we hire product A,

we fire something else.

This may not be the shiny new startup

down the block from you,

but a homegrown system

cobbled together with email and spreadsheets.

Email and spreadsheets have killed more products than startups.

Email and spreadsheets are free and ubiquitous.

The real question is not

how will you compete against the next startup,

but how do you get people to fire their existing

habits of the present and

establish your product as the new habit.