You shop from a supermarket nearby, grab lunch at the restaurant near your office space, order jeans from an eCommerce site offering discounts, probably hit the gym, or go to yoga classes.
None of these businesses is unique. They thrive because of sufficient demand, which also justifies the existence of “food court” areas in shopping malls – a dozen fast food or proper food places to grab a snack in-between.
There are millions of agencies and freelancers offering marketing or development services out there. However, over 30,000,000 businesses have been registered in the US alone.
Not every business requires similar services right away. Some of these businesses hire in-house, while others already work with a vendor. But different companies look for different qualities in terms of cost, attention to detail, volume, and familiarity with the industry (or a technology), among others.
Finding and vetting vendors represent a problem for most businesses. Word of mouth is a strong signal, followed by local networking groups or conferences. Some rely on Google search or freelance networks, however, credibility is hit or miss and it takes time to find the right talent.
The bottom line is that there are just a handful of true “startups” out there innovating in a given space.
True innovation is rare because it requires a combination of factors that are difficult to achieve: a visionary idea, a team capable of executing it, sufficient funding, and a market ready for change.
Almost every business sticks to a familiar business model and offers products and services in high demand, competing with a smaller number of vendors, stressing on a particular thing they do best—a very specific service, lower costs for a product that others sell at a higher price, etc.