This is an interesting distinction because in Silicon Valley (and startup world generally) people are dissuaded from creating a company around a feature. It's better to be a product and even better to be a platform, according to the popular wisdom.
As someone who runs a feature company, I've given this distinction bit of thought, and I think the reasons that feature-based startups are disfavored are that:
(1) features typically do not impact a sufficiently-important life activity
(2) features are often not protectable from competitors
One example is momentum-based scrolling. Does this functionality add enough value to an important life activity that you could build a company around it? It is nice, and we do scroll all the time, but it's hard to imagine starting a company around the feature of scrolling with momentum. This is especially true because it would probably be difficult to get a patent that covered such an idea.
A more borderline case is the blindspot-less side view mirror. Side view mirrors are important, and this technology could literally save lives. And apparently someone did get a patent on a minimally-distortive, blindspot-less side view mirror [1]. But I don't know if it was ever productized (patent is dated 2012), and the window of opportunity on this is closing as camera-based solutions are growing more popular.
If you could come up with a feature that does impact a major life activity, and you could get an IP moat around it, then it could be worthwhile to create a feature company. I've tried doing this, and after several years of slogging, my reading-enhancement feature is being adopted by major education platforms like Blackboard and universities like Stanford. [2]
I'd be interested to talk with folks from other feature companies to hear about their experiences/thoughts. Contact info is in my profile!
Fully agree with your numbered points and thanks for commenting.
I checked out your product and I had never seen coloured gradients used to pull readers through long form text. It worked on me, though. Very cool!
Applying my framework, I think you have found a small, but paying market in Stanford and Blackboard. That's great! I wonder whether you could be providing even more value to that market. I don't know enough about how your product is used and how much it matters to your customers, but my hunch is that there are nearby problems they care as much or more about.
Yes, we do have other B2B customers, and we're getting good traction in higher education publishing in particular. We'll also be integrated by a YC company later this month!
You mention that there could be nearby problems that people would care about also, and it's true that in our products we include other adjacent features. But our primary business is B2B licensing, and none of these other features is licensable, it doesn't end up impacting our business.
We've thought about developing new adjacent features, and someday we may do that. But right now the primary goal is getting people accustomed to reading with color gradient as a guide, which is a pretty novel thing. I'm glad you like it!
Hm, good point. Very philosophical. While most things in life are spectrums, I believe there are boundaries that can be discovered and shared. These allow us to make better-than-arbitrary decisions which lead to better outcomes over the long term.
As someone who runs a feature company, I've given this distinction bit of thought, and I think the reasons that feature-based startups are disfavored are that:
(1) features typically do not impact a sufficiently-important life activity
(2) features are often not protectable from competitors
One example is momentum-based scrolling. Does this functionality add enough value to an important life activity that you could build a company around it? It is nice, and we do scroll all the time, but it's hard to imagine starting a company around the feature of scrolling with momentum. This is especially true because it would probably be difficult to get a patent that covered such an idea.
A more borderline case is the blindspot-less side view mirror. Side view mirrors are important, and this technology could literally save lives. And apparently someone did get a patent on a minimally-distortive, blindspot-less side view mirror [1]. But I don't know if it was ever productized (patent is dated 2012), and the window of opportunity on this is closing as camera-based solutions are growing more popular.
If you could come up with a feature that does impact a major life activity, and you could get an IP moat around it, then it could be worthwhile to create a feature company. I've tried doing this, and after several years of slogging, my reading-enhancement feature is being adopted by major education platforms like Blackboard and universities like Stanford. [2] I'd be interested to talk with folks from other feature companies to hear about their experiences/thoughts. Contact info is in my profile!
1: https://drexel.edu/now/archive/2012/June/Drivers-Side-Mirror....
2: https://www.beelinereader.com