A GUIDE TO DISRUPTING INCUMBENTS

Summary from the TLDR Founders newsletter

Smart startups don't attack incumbents head-on - they commoditize their complements through three powerful strategies: nuking pricing power, reducing switching costs, or eating the complement entirely. The approach works especially well in today's Vertical AI landscape, where startups can use LLMs to weaken incumbent lock-in - but beware the pitfalls: don't commoditize complements critical to your own product's stickiness, and ensure your product is positioned to capture the value flow once complements become commodities.