External analysis for new ventures

The external analysis is perhaps more useful for larger companies than for startups[@ianuzzi2017Entrepreneurship for Physicists]. However, it can be important to understand the framework in order to judge future processes. The focus should be to create sustained competitive advantage by deploying a strategy unique to us and that competitors can't imitate.

To realize if we can succeed, we can use the VRInS criteria (this refers to a strategy not to a product):

• Valuable
• Rare
• Imperfectly imitable
• Non-substitutable

Entrepreneurs, however, focus on control over prediction, and therefore are willing to move the boundary conditions (see: Piloting a new venture). Especially for scipreneurs, this gives them the first-mover advantage[@ianuzzi2017Entrepreneurship for Physicists]. However, this advantage can only be achieved in specific contexts (see: first-mover advantage)

The next step in the process is to study the competitor landscape for new ventures.

See: Internal analysis for new ventures