The Dynamics of Early Markets
First problem:
- no expertise in bringing a product to market.
- insufficient capital, inexperienced sales and marketing people, tries to sell the product through an inappropriate channel of distribution, promotes in the wrong places and in the wrong ways, and in general fouls things up.
A second problem:
- The company sells the visionary before it has the product. This is a version of the famous vaporware problem, based on pre-announcing and pre-marketing a product that still has significant development hurdles to overcome.
- Entrepreneurial company has only one adequate response, a truly unhappy one: shut down.