How To Analyze Your Market — Market Research for Entrepreneurs
TL;DR: Create a spreadsheet with sources, facts and data related to the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats concerning who you sell to, who you need to buy from, and everyone else that spends money or makes money because of your service or product or the lack thereof.
Hi. My name is Nir. I run a Search Fund called Grafting Legacy. We work with retired executives from an NYSE listed company that grew by acquiring other companies. I realized working with them would teach me how to avoid the mistakes I made as a founder of my tech startup, Campus Bubble.
I read a post on Hacker News titled, “Ask HN: Any recommended resources to learn market analysis?”. I was disappointed by the answers.
Here’s our two cents on how to do market research:
- View our Spreadsheet template; “the chessboard”
- or hire us to help you fill it out and extract the right answers
The Chessboard
A good analysis of your market allows you to visualize your “chessboard” and determine how much money your addressable market spends on the solution you offer.
Consider the pieces of your spreadsheet to be the key players: Competitors, investors, acquirers, groups of customers, etc.
Imagine a chessboard where the key players of your market and industry are placed based on their characteristics.
Among business school students, the term “SWOT” is especially memorable. It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Define what they are best at, what they struggle to do, what they will do to grow, and what they fear.
A lot of this information can be a challenge to find. It might require you to call in order to pretend to be a sales prospect or potential supplier. Do what it takes to collect facts and data such as price and product features.
If you do this exercise right, you will become an industry expert.
- Look for players in your market that can help you
- Look for things that you should copy
- Look for things you should do differently
- Figure out where you should focus based on where you are most likely to succeed
