The Early Bird Doesn’t Always Catch the Worm: Lessons from Late Bloomers and Game Changers

I recently came across a captivating post ( (7) Post | Feed | LinkedIn) by Ashish Kashyap that sparked some reflections from my own learnings and experiences at Ibibo and OLX, under the mentorship of visionaries like Ashish Kashyap and Rahul Sethi .

His post highlights a vital truth: being the first to market doesn’t always guarantee long-term leadership.

In the past, early movers had a major edge—they had time to build customer trust, establish robust supply chains, build infrastructure, achieve economies of scale, and create operational efficiencies that set up strong entry barriers.

That’s why so many traditional organizations held their spots on the Fortune 100 list for years, and hence it made sense to be the first mover.

?But the game has changed. Today, those traditional barriers aren’t nearly as formidable. For example, launching an online travel agency (OTA) is no longer a daunting task, it was just a decade ago.

New players can quickly integrate reservation systems via APIs, access wholesale pricing, and pass those benefits to their customers. With enough funding, they can even accelerate customer acquisition and pose serious threats to established players. Hence it doesn’t matter really if you are the first or second in many industries, even today, because entry barriers are low.

While traditional large travel agents and airlines once thrived because they were first movers with the luxury of time to create entry barriers, today’s late bloomers often find success by leveraging technology and data to overcome those barriers.

Their focus on creating genuine customer value, securing loyalty, and doing it all with incredible speed has allowed them to disrupt the space.

A key strength of these late bloomers is, leveraging data and technology to deliver a superior user experience.

For example, a well-designed, intuitive UI becomes second nature to users, making it hard for them to switch to something else or go back to traditional processes.

This is one of the many ways, today’s players build their own entry barriers, or combat incumbents.

Look at Facebook and Google, for example. They weren’t the first in their fields, but they rapidly grew by creating a fly wheel of sort- (a network effect)- delivering incremental value as they onboarding users faster than the competition.

Platforms like Orkut and MySpace couldn’t harness network effects as effectively as Facebook did, and they ultimately lost out.

Facebook won because it successfully created a network effect, strengthened and defended its network effect (with strategic acquisitions like Instagram and WhatsApp), while also creating high switching costs for users.

?On the other hand, sectors like OTAs or airlines haven’t managed to master network effects or creating high switching costs for users in quite the same way.

(Although, GoIbibo did try to tap into network effects with its referral coin concept.)

In contrast, Amazon, a first mover, has remained dominant. But it’s not just because they were first—it’s because they continually leverage and defend their network effects through offerings like Prime and Kindle etc. With a vast array of choices, personalized recommendations, fast logistics, and easy returns, they make the switching cost high for users.

That said, even network effects have their limits. The moment a company stops delivering incremental value, the door opens for new players to step in and disrupt.

(It doesn’t matter whether you are the first or second mover)

Take Uber, for example. It’s doing great on all major metrics. But just adding more drivers can only reduce wait times for riders so much, and hence the user value perception eventually will plateau.

They understood this very early, and to combat this impending weakening of network effect, they launched ‘deliveries’ and ‘freights’ to strengthen and defend their network effect.

Today ‘Delivery’ contributes 30%+ towards their overall revenues.

Ashish’s insights serve as a reminder that in today’s world, success isn’t about being first—it’s about being agile, smart, and relentlessly focused on creating lasting value for customers-with a greater momentum than everyone else.