More X-Factor Examples
January 24, 2010 2 Comments
Thinking more about the X-Factor post from a few days ago, I realized there are a few more examples worth citing. As a quick recap, the general idea is that an X-Factor is a competitive advantage that is 7 – 10x better than the industry. Let’s look at some additional examples:
- When Google introduced Gmail they offered 1GB of storage space, which was much more 10x the space of Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail
- America Online, back in the 1990s, distributed over one billion (yes, billion) free trials on CD-ROMs, which is more than 10x their competitors
- Salesforce.com, one of the pioneers of SaaS, reduced the cost of enterprise CRM software by more than 10x (NetSuite did the same for ERP software)
I encourage entrepreneurs to look at products they use on a regular basis and ask themselves what X-Factors got the product to where it is today.
What are some more X-Factor examples?
About David Cummings
One that comes to mind is Amazon S3 & EC2 – lowering the cost of computing power & storage.
The Nintendo Wii also comes to mind, but more of a transformative product than one that can be measured against others.
Thanks Adam – those are great additions.