A Deep Tech Founder’s Guide to Understanding the Market Landscape

Existing Markets or Other Markets, that is the Question

You’ve developed your technology and decided to turn your research into a business — but who are you going to sell to? This is one of the most important questions founders face from the very beginning: who are your customers, and what kind of market do they exist in? 

To help navigate this critical choice, Steve Blank—one of the pioneers of modern startup thinking and co-author of The Startup Owner’s Manual—introduced a simple but powerful framework: Every startup operates in one of four market types. Are you competing, resegmenting, creating, or cloning?

Existing Markets

Existing markets are already well established, with clearly defined customer needs and known competitors. As a founder, you can analyze what others are offering (their pricing, product features, and customer acquisition tactics) and use that insight to inform your strategy.

You also benefit from having data: you know the market size, typical customer expectations, and existing demand. This gives you the advantage of predictability, but also the challenge of outperforming incumbents.

Your goal in an existing market is to win by being a lot cheaper, a lot faster, or a lot better. You're not creating new demand—you're capturing it more effectively than the competition. Focus early on a crystal-clear value proposition and a go-to-market plan that directly addresses customer switching barriers (cost, risk, integration effort).

Common Pitfall: Assuming a better product is enough to win. 

Many founders in existing markets underestimate switching costs, brand loyalty, or how sticky incumbent solutions are. Without a clear and compelling value difference and strong go-to-market execution, even a technically superior product may struggle to gain traction, both with customers and with investors. 

A real-world example is Mavenir, which was able to enter the established telecom infrastructure market by offering cloud-native, software-based network solutions, challenging traditional hardware providers like Ericsson and Nokia with a more flexible and cost-effective approach.

Resegmenting Markets

But what if you’re not just competing head-to-head — what if you're carving out a new slice of an existing market?

Resegmentation happens when your product is so distinct from what's currently on the market that it carves out a new sub-market, even though you’re still solving an existing customer need.

There are typically two ways to resegment:

• Low-cost resegmentation: Offering a significantly cheaper version of an existing solution.

• Niche resegmentation: Tailoring your solution for a specific audience that isn’t well served by current offerings. 

In both cases, your success hinges on clear positioning. Customers need to immediately understand how you're different—and why that difference matters. Make sure your differentiation is instantly clear; if people can’t quickly grasp how you stand apart, keep refining your pitch until they can.

Common Pitfall: Unclear or diluted positioning.

If your niche or cost advantage isn’t immediately obvious to customers, you risk being perceived as just another competitor and get pulled into the broader market you were trying to avoid. In resegmentation, your messaging must be razor-sharp.

A recent example of niche market resegmentation is Massive Beams’ MODRAD platform, which deliberately targets the underserved developer and research community by offering an open, highly customizable O‑RAN radio unit. Its users often struggle with closed, proprietary hardware that lacks access to raw IQ data, flexibility in waveform or frequency development, and compatibility with xApp/RIC frameworks. MODRAD addresses these pain points by providing full SDR‑mode support, seamless integration via Python/MATLAB APIs, and an open interface that empowers innovators to experiment with new waveforms and next‑gen standards without being locked into mainstream telecom vendors. 

New Markets

But sometimes, you're not slicing up an existing market at all, you're actually trying to create something entirely new.
In a new market, there are no direct competitors (which seems great at first) but there is also no confirmed demand.

That’s both the risk and the opportunity.

You’re not improving an already available solution; instead, you’re bringing something new into existence. That means your early customers might not even realize they have the problem you're solving. You’ll need to educate the potential market, test your assumptions about the problem as well as your solution, and iterate constantly until you reach product-market fit. 

Steve Blank calls these first potential customers “earlyvangelists”: early adopters who not only use your product but help shape it. Your job is to find them, learn from them, and grow the market around them.

Common Pitfall: Overestimating demand—or underestimating how long it takes to build it.

Founders in new markets often burn through resources too quickly, assuming the market will appear as soon as the product launches. In reality, education, evangelism, and iteration take A LOT OF time… and patience.

Example: Helium created a completely new market by building a decentralized, blockchain-powered wireless network for IoT devices, where individuals—not telecom companies—own and operate the infrastructure.

Clone Market

Finally, what if you're not inventing something new, but adapt something proven to a new setting? This is exactly what happens in a clone market. You take a proven business model to a new context that might be a different country, regulatory system, or language zone where the original players can’t compete effectively.

Here, the challenge isn't innovation—it’s speed and execution. You already know the model works somewhere else. Your competitive edge is being the first to execute it successfully in your region, before anyone else moves in. 

Common Pitfall: Copying without adapting.

A clone market requires more than just imitation—success comes from localizing the product, pricing, and go-to-market strategy. Founders who copy the surface without adjusting to local realities often fail to gain traction.

Reliance Jio is a telecom example of a company entering a clone market, adapting the proven 4G broadband model from Western markets to India with ultra-low pricing and new infrastructure, succeeding where existing players were slow to modernize.

The Bottom Line

Understanding your market type isn’t just an academic exercise: it’s a foundational decision that drives how you build, sell, and grow.

There’s no best market type, but there is a different strategy for each. Get it wrong, and you’ll waste time and resources. Get it right, and you’ll give your startup a fighting chance from day one. 

Do you have your own startup idea in the field of wireless or communication systems, but aren’t sure which market type you’re addressing?

Take advantage of our network: At the xG-Incubator, we help you validate your assumptions early and find the right go-to-market strategy. Get in touch with us—together, we’ll turn innovation into real-world applications!

What does the xG-Incubator offer in this context?

• 1:1 Coaching: Personalized guidance on market analysis and market entry strategy

• Access to 6G-RIC Testbeds and Partner Network: Test and refine your solutions in real-world environments and connect with leading industry partners

• Workshops: Hands-on sessions on business model development and funding opportunities