I like the expression “you need to skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is.” If you’re building your business in terms if Foursquare or Quora analogies, it’s already too late. I think skating to where the puck will be is a turn off to some people because it requires making betstimates, and in some cases, to use another sports analogy, this results in you, as a soccer goalie, jumping in the opposite direction of the ball.

At my first job out of college, an older colleague once told me a great story about salad; he told me that I needed to think like the guy who invented salad in a bag. As recently as 15 years ago, you could only buy lettuce in heads. The lettuce market was a strong and crowded market, and rather than compete directly, one entrepreneur hypothesized that many people were too lazy to pull apart and wash their lettuce. Shortly after this insight, lettuce in a bag was launched, and we’ve never looked back. (I’ve done nothing to vet this story, but its truthfulness is besides the point.)

Lettuce was a saturated market and the trend was people eating more healthy but also being more time strapped then ever. By analogy Foursquare is lettuce, and lettuce in a bag is some completely unthought of angle that harnesses mobile geo. Lettuce in a bag is not another Foursquare/Quora clone.

It makes sense to be a creature of your time, to look to the themes and trends that are rising and seek to be part of them. This certainly makes more sense than seeking to enter the typewriter market this summer. With that said, the key is to go after the industry of the time, as opposed to compete directly against the products in that industry. You can’t give customers more of what they’re asking for and using; you need to service the underlying but unexpressed need in a way unimagined (Who said this again? This is a quote from someone I’m pretty sure). Attack lettuce with a bag.