Copying is perhaps the strongest force in the world. We are so predisposed to copy that it infiltrates our most innovative institutions, even the self-proclaimed hub of innovative thinking, Silicon Valley. Of course, those of us in Silicon Valley don’t call ourselves copycats, we call ourselves disrupters.
Good Entrepreneurs Don’t Set Out to Disrupt
Lessons on market expansion from the cofounder of Square.
May 08, 2020
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Summary.
Disruption is not always destruction. The vast majority of entrepreneurial ventures did not steal their customers from any established business, but rather brought new people into a market. The author writes about co-founding Square. While the company is known for disrupting the payment industry, the author argues that like companies before and after his, Square instead expanded the market. Rethinking disruption as market expansion will help more entrepreneurial ventures succeed, he argues.