My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Anchor Your Vision to Recognized Winners
Position your company as 'we're doing what [successful company] did for [known market] but for [your bigger market]' to help investors quickly understand the opportunity size.
Decision Rule
Find successful companies in adjacent or similar markets, then frame your opportunity as that proven model applied to a larger or underserved market.
How It Works
Investors understand successful business models faster than novel ones. By anchoring to proven successes, you reduce cognitive load and help them pattern-match to positive outcomes they've seen before.
Failure Modes
Choosing anchor companies that aren't actually similar to your business model
Picking anchor companies investors don't respect or understand
Making market size claims that aren't credible
Over-relying on analogy without explaining key differences
Example Decision
“Instead of explaining behavioral therapy apps from scratch, position as 'what Calm and Headspace ($2B and $1B companies) did for meditation, we're doing for insomnia/depression/anxiety - markets that are 50x bigger than meditation.'”