How To Disrupt And "Hipmunk" An Industry

I'm sorry, but this article really lacks context, and is grossly overgeneralising (see http://swombat.com/2011/1/20/how-to-write-good-startup-advic... )...

Most of those would be good pieces of advice given the right amount of context, but they are blown up into universal advice and, even worse, a "how to" (yes, I know the title of the original article doesn't say "How to", but it was posted to HN by its author, jason, and so he chose both titles!). This is not a "how to" for disruption. A better how-to for that topic would be this one: http://swombat.com/2011/2/18/how-to-develop-disruptive-ideas by someone who's written a book about the topic after spending much time studying it, and so has had the chance to develop a generic method.

Instead, this article is a collection of potentially good pieces of advice that can be deadly if used without being properly understood.

Anyway, so my point is, I think you can do much better than this, Jason, given your skill at writing and your breadth of knowledge of startups.

"The word disruption is thrown around way too much."

I agree. What has Hipmunk disrupted?

To 'Hipmunk' an industry: Be a cofounder of a successful startup. Leave that company. Make a new one. Whatever industry you're involved in will be hipmunked!

In Christensen's definition of disruption there's nothing about "excruciating pain". It's about serving non-consumers, then getting better. A key idea is you don't confront a competitor head-on, but begin in markets that they don't care about, with a product that's not as good, in their customers' opinion, and so doesn't threaten them.

> Disruptive innovation, a term of art coined by Clayton Christensen, describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves ‘up market’, eventually displacing established competitors.

> An innovation that is disruptive allows a whole new population of consumers access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill. Characteristics of disruptive businesses, at least in their initial stages, can include: lower gross margins, smaller target markets, and simpler products and services that may not appear as attractive as existing solutions when compared against traditional performance metrics.

> Because companies tend to innovate faster than their customers’ lives change, most organizations eventually end up producing products or services that are too good, too expensive, and too inconvenient for many customers. By only pursuing “sustaining innovations” that perpetuate what has historically helped them succeed, companies unwittingly open the door to “disruptive innovations”. http://www.claytonchristensen.com/disruptive_innovation.html [see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology#The_theor...]

Far from being excruciatingly painful, the disrupted incumbent is often at the height of their success, well-respected and well-liked, and doing a great job at serving their customers. For example, just before Digital's fall (the puzzle that Christensen wanted to understand in his PhD) it was a highly lauded company. How could Digital get killed? he implored.

To me, this article's use of "disruption" is a signal of quality that says: this is not a rigorous article. It seems to be using disruption in its common dictionary meaning, to shake things up. But when writing on technology adoption and startups to a seasoned audience, one would expect an awareness of the technical meaning. Although, to be fair, it does seem that many people in startup circles use the term extremely broadly (as if it meant "to compete with" or "to beat"). I agree with the article on that point.

A counterpoint to this entire comment: fortune favours the brave, not the meticulous.

Jason is spot on that Hipmunk is trying to ease pain in the flight booking industry. Booking flights is largely undifferentiated in the space with low-price sort and sites bombarded with ads all aimed at squeezing a few more bucks out of a low-margin industry (flight rev share to partners are less than $3/ticket).

Is it disruptive to the flight industry? I don't think so. I love the intent of Hipmunk but to say disruptive implies a deeper seated change that I don't think Hipmunk is driving in flights. You mentioned Square which both solves an interface pain point but is also shifting payments to a mobile on-site platform for small businesses. They are doing business differently because of Square and are able to service a new segment of customers they were not able to before (ones with credit cards).

What would be disruptive to the airline industry? I think to disrupt the industry, you would need to change the way people fly or how they buy/book air travel as a whole. One idea that I think would be considered disruptive is if someone introduced pre-paid flight vouchers to lock in prices much like you would to gas/oil contracts. This would change the airline's supply/demand model, it would change the way we "hunt" for low prices, and change the general way we view air travel (instead of waiting for a low price, we've already paid for x number of flights so we're free to go as needed).

The other points in the article are generally spot on for startups to focus on your power users and build a fan base. The one thing about calling out your competitors is that it's easy to do when you are clearly and squarely about reducing pain and friction and that your target audience clearly sympathizes with your intentions. No smart competitor would come out and call you out on trying to do the consumer some good unless they want a PR backlash.

Similarly, weather is an ugly, painful, lost-in-yesterday category--which is why we're so glad to be in it.

Hipmunk has an amazing interface. It is simply revolutionarily better than existing flight sites. I don't fly much, but boy howdy, I don't plan to move away from Hipmunk.

I don't think they disrupted the online travel industry, however. (yet?) I'd like to see them become the flight search portal.

All hipmonk did was provide ITA's Matrix time bar interface with the ability to book tickets. Brilliant, and they added some marketing. It wasn't hard or innovative. Most people simply didn't know about that UI.

the hipmunk path can be applied to any industry, given the existing condition (#1 bellow) on the field:

1. get solution used for 30yr in the industry but closed to insiders

2. provide same solution for end consumers

3. profit.