Ask HN: Entering a saturated market? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Entering a saturated market?

4 pointsgoodday4 comments

Hi all, I've been thinking of entering a really saturated market and I'm wondering what others would advice when trying to do this?

The market I'm talking about is in the Health and Fitness space. I know there are some startups in the space, some doing better than others. I recently talked to a friend who knows more about marketing/SEO than I do and he mentioned how the space is quite crowded, he advised I reconsider.

In the end, solving this problem is something I'm quite excited and passionate about so I have been concentrating more on trying to figure out a great solution and not really on how saturated the market might be. As far as I can see, there is a lot of stuff out there, but it doesn't mean all of it is good or great.

Thanks

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Thanks for the responses so far...

I know the main players in the space and I do think I can differentiate myself from them. However, it would be interesting to hear about other players/startups that are in the space, even those that have failed (would be useful to get in touch with the founders so I can learn from their experiences). It could be that I have missed a few things out there and I would love to know about more, in fact, if something already solves the problems I myself have encountered that would be great.

The general category I'm looking at includes fitness/health and technology... so anything from Dailyburn, Fitday, Traineo, BodyTrace, Lose it Lose it, fitness focused forums, iPhone Apps (i.e Runkeeper), Nike Plus, FitBit, Wahoo fitness .. to even the Wii Fit are interesting to me.

> solving this problem is something I'm quite excited and passionate about

I'd say that's your answer.

If it's something that interests you, you're going to pushing that much harder towards the goal, which makes a crowded market less of an issue. Besides, isn't the point of all this entrepeneur stuff to do what you want to do?

If you're going to be financially dependent on this, then yeah, do the research and weigh the odds and all that. If not, do what you enjoy, and if it fails at least you've had fun and gained a bunch of experience for next time.

Have something that stands out about you ... better design/user experience, better community, better content. something. If you can't come up with something that will make you standout somewhat... pass up the opportunity.

only do it if you think you can do significantly better, and in a way that is noticeable to your audience.

if you can differentiate yourself no market is ever saturated.

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