Last month I posted this tweet; I thought I should elaborate on it and explain what we think when we build products at ShimBi Labs.
You don't have to do what everyone else is doing, but some times doing differently what everyone else is doing also can change the world....
— Siddharth Deshmukh (@siddhud) December 21, 2014
At ShimBi Labs, sometimes we innovate, but most of the time we do things differently with the hope to bring positive changes in the world around us.
We have two SaaS products Shimbi Invoice and Budo, an invoicing software and website builder with the content management system. If you search on Google, you will find 100s of similar products, but only a few of them will stand out. Those who stand out are market leaders. For example, QuickBooks for online accounting and Wordpress for website content management. QuickBooks is promoting certified accountants and whereas Wordpress is the first choice for website designers. Both need the expertise to use this software.
So we decided, we will do the same thing (Invoicing & Website Builder) as they are doing but differently. We will build them for Small Business Owners and Freelancers. We will build Invoicing software which should be easy to understand and operate. Website Builder, which is as easy as Facebook or Google+. You don't need to be a trained accountant to send your invoices or web designer to build and manage your website contents.
We are building the same products as market leaders, but building it differently and making them Simple, Powerful yet Affordable.
However, we are not alone here, who are doing things differently. Apple has done the same. Earlier also there used to be a portable music system, but Apple did it differently with iPod. You remember that famous Keynote of Steve Jobs "1000 songs in your pocket..." when he launched first iPod. Apple did not stop there; they repeated the same thing with iTunes and iPhone.
Apple did it, so differently and intuitively that changed the way we listen to music and use phones. Users love these products so much that it disrupts the market. There are many such examples mostly from startups and some from big companies.
It's ok to do the same things what everyone else is doing, but doing them differently can change the world. It is also ok; you don't always need to build a product that disrupts the market, but it is necessary to build a product or offer a service that solves the problem of users. Don't build a product for VCs that solves their problem of return on investment.
Do things differently, say yes to challenges, enrich people's lives with your product and service.