"If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon and build a better mousetrap than his neighbour, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods." - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
While the quote above may have held during Waldo Emerson's time, many companies' recent experiences will contest this and, in some cases, even negate it. Product distribution, i.e. getting your product into the hands of the customers when they need it, is essential to startup success. Yannick Oswald, a partner at Mangrove Capital Partners, which has backed 5 Unicorns, including Skype, argues that distribution is the number one reason for startup success. Some players have also opined that verticals within the innovation ecosystem, like Fintech, have moved into the distribution era, where startups will win by crafting a compelling distribution strategy.
At a fundamental level, the rationale for this is
