[pfarrell]

I learned something similar founding a startup. If I could do it again, I would have aggressively avoided pursuing the table stakes feature in our space. Instead we should have done the minimal amount to be comfortable that our architecture could support the enterprisey things. We should have then concentrated everything on something that would set us apart, something we could demo and get a “wow… I see where this could go” instead of something like “oh this is just a clone of x”.

[wrs]

I sort of see your point, but you’re misusing the term “table stakes”, which by definition are what you have to put up to play at all. It sounds like you would implement the table stakes features, but not go farther with the “normal” extensions. The strategy being to get a callback with the exciting features, and have the table stakes features that let you avoid being vetoed for missing something essential.

[pfarrell]

Yeah that’s pretty much what happened. What I was thinking was we over estimated what the table stakes were. We were building a collaborative SQL editor aka notebooks. We spent way too much time getting it working with different dbs instead of focusing on a couple and building the things that actually made us stand out. A single customer wouldn’t really care about all the dbs we could talk to that were the one she was using.

[allknowingfrog]

I don't disagree, but I also hear "table stakes" used more often as a hand-wavy justification for a feature list than as a genuine, informed evaluation of customer demand. This seems to align with the sentiment of the parent comment. At some point, "common usage" become unassailable, no matter how much it irks me.

[Xcelerate]

If I understand you correctly, you’re saying implement the bare minimum for enterprise customers—whatever their leadership requires to do business with you—but beyond that, forget about those features and focus on something very novel that sets you apart from the competition?

[AnimalMuppet]

If you're just like the competition, you lose, because you're more of an unknown. If you want to win business, you have to have something that your established competitors do not. (And, of course, it has to be something that your customers want, not just some random thing.)

[michaeljx]

Kind of like what the iPhone did when they launched without copy-pasting, and a very underwhelming gsm radio

[pfarrell]

Yeah, that original iPhone launch keynote is something I like to watch every so often. It really emphasized we’re only doing this because we see what’s wrong with smartphones and this is our vision. They didn’t go “we made the best stylus you can have”.