To Be An Entrepreneur Is To Be An Underdog

In a traditional sense, most businesses started small; small manpower, small capital, small office, small revenue, small profit... And the disadvantage of being a small business is you get crushed by big boys easily. In fact, many a time small businesses lose out from competing with big companies. This scenario justifies the underdog status for a small startup. 

But lately some small startups are starting big, in terms of funding. They start with a considerable amount of funding, a number of sharing-economy startups such as Airbnb, Mobike, Uber raised millions and millions of dollars through the years, for example. Many would think that the underdog description does not apply to these startups because they are funded with big capital. The truth is, entrepreneurship is 'underdog-hood' whether you start with big capital or not.

The essence of entrepreneurship is creating value by solving your target audience's problems. Sometimes your solution is competing against big companies' solution, for example a hotel booking app versus travel agencies. Sometimes your solution is fighting against a much bigger competitor, the consumer habits. For example, using cash versus using payment apps for your purchase. In addition, an underdogged solution that succeeded in one country may not work in another country; Bike sharing worked in Beijing and New York, it does not work in a developing country where safety measure for bikers is usually neglected. Conversely, a ride-sharing solution that beat the scammy taxi service in a third world country may not achieve the same level of success in a first world country where the system for customer safety and satisfaction, and enforcement are well developed and strict towards taxi service providers.  So, an underdog also got to figure out whether the ecosystem is conducive.    

Whether he is competing against a larger corporation, or against an age-old habit, an entrepreneur is an underdog.