Starting small makes your solution the best for someone

TL;DR My new project, Fubolista, is a website builder that will be focused on aspiring professional soccer players.

When building for everyone, you're actually building for no one. I learned this lesson firsthand while working on ilufy.io.

The most successful companies start small and focus on solving one specific problem.

In the early stages, nobody knows you, and people won't use your product until they trust you or have a desperate need for it.

Additionally, your product will be compared to competitors, so it's important to use your unique advantages to stand out.

When customers see your product, they'll trust you more if they feel like it was built specifically for them, not for everyone.

Inspiration

The Komi platform actually inspired me to create Fubolista. But why would someone choose Fubolista over Komi?

To show soccer players that Fubolista is the better option for them, I need to highlight the soccer-specific features that Komi doesn't prioritize.

Komi aims to serve all content creators, including musicians, actors, and models, so they focus on building features for all types of content creators at once.

This creates an opportunity for Fubolista to specialize in soccer-specific features, such as the ability to present a player's bio in a professional-looking grid.

This includes sections for player information like you would find on a club's official website.

Full disclosure: I'm a Chelsea fan 🔵 😊

It does not make sense for Komi to invest in these soccer-specific features at this time, as soccer players are not their core customer base.

They may consider adding them in the future as they grow as a company. In the meantime, Fubolista will provide these features better for soccer players.

Another crucial feature for soccer players, whether they are influencers or not, is the ability to share their latest highlight videos.

Komi does allow for this, but it's not specifically labeled as a "highlight video", as that labeling may not be relevant to other types of content creators, such as artists or actors.

Micro-niche

What I just described is known as 'niche selection'. There are many types of influencers, and by choosing to focus on soccer, I am targeting a specific subset of people.

I will even narrow it down further by building for a micro niche: aspiring soccer professionals who are not influencers yet.

This is a smaller group of people, but it allows me to tailor the software specifically to their needs.

I am able to do this because I have a personal connection to this group - I was once an aspiring soccer professional myself and I understand their needs and concerns.

Additionally, I have existing personal relationships with some of them, which will be helpful in gathering early feedback and improving my product as I build it.

Making the product useful to this group will make Fubolista successful in that niche. I will also have less competition as the market is too small for larger businesses to focus on.

This is the advantage of being a solopreneur. The market may be too small for a company, but it's still large enough for an individual to profit from.

Once I have a solid product, I can apply my learnings to expand into other niches, such as soccer influencers, for example, in this case.

It will also be easier for me to convince soccer influencers to use the app once they see an existing version of Fubolista. I can then target another niche to grow in, and so on.

Unfair advantages

Two people or companies can build the same product with vastly different outcomes. This why it's crucial to play to your strengths to stand out.

Anyone trying to copy you will likely fail, as it will cost them more time, energy, and money than it did for you. After all, you're working in your area of expertise.

In my case, I chose to create an iOS app because I am an iOS software engineer.

Developers are expensive to hire, and great mobile developers are even more so. We are also in a recession at the time of writing.

By making Fubolista an iOS app, I have an unfair advantage over similar products, as at the time of writing, none have an iOS app.

Furthermore, I personally have credibility and connections in the soccer world due to my experiences, so it's easier for me to convince people to use Fubolista compared to those who don't.

That's yet another unfair advantage. I hope this is starting to make sense.