Aiming for the Middle
If you’re reading a blog (probably via RSS) about tech entrepreneurship, you probably know all about Twitter. You probably have used NetVibes or MyBlogLog or have a heavily personalized Google Reader. You install FireFox extensions and maybe write Monkey Wrench scripts to tweak your gmail settings or other parts of your web experience. The people who comment on the blogs you read know about all this stuff too, so sometimes it seems like everyone does.
They really don’t though. My girlfriend is smart and sophisticated. She uses the web in a way that is integrated in her everyday life. She has multiple email addresses, plans events and trips online and does a lot of other business on the web. But you know what? She’s never heard of any of that stuff in the first paragraph. Her friends here in New York haven’t either. Their boyfriends and husbands? Nah. Truth is, most of my classmates at Columbia Business School have never heard of any of this stuff.
The point of all of this is that I’ve been thinking about a lot of the web startups I read about – companies launching at DEMO and on the TechCrunch Forums and elsewhere. I try to keep in mind that while my girlfriend (and my younger brother, my friends from law school, etc…) are all consistent users of the internet, this new wave hasn’t touched them at all. But the companies that manage to get this big part of the internet-connected bell curve are the ones that are going to have really big success. It’s worth it to spend time really thinking about what the 50th percentile of the web population wants and what they are willing and able to use.
