The Competition is Too Scared to be Cutting Edge
We look to the monopoly organizations and think to ourselves, "What do I need to do to be the next Google, Apple, or Microsoft?" Then we are sorely reminded of the scale at which these organizations operate and quickly snap back to reality, perhaps a little less ecstatic than before. There is no way for a startup, or even small company to compete with these orgs, especially in their specific niches. The competition is quickly crushed or bought out without large commercial investors - and even then you must face the challenge of being a unicorn in your space.
With that said, you have to remember that these organizations are scared to make drastic changes, they're scared to take the technology of tomorrow and apply it to their use cases today. Okay, maybe they're not scared but definitely weary! They can't go change their stack and create a new solution, and if anything they're better off for not doing so. Oftentimes, it may lead to cannibalizing their own product and market share. Think of these large firms similarly to pharmaceuticals, they could make a better version, but it could cost them their own business or not provide enough profit margin based on their revenue models.
To be ahead of the competition, you can and sometimes must be cutting edge, always teetering between chaos and success, anything else can be easily mimicked, or crushed.
What Does Chaos Look Like?
Chaos in our world should be seen as a positive construct for change and advancement. The most recent example of this positive change is blockchain and crypto-currency. The former isn't a new idea, but its use case as a tool for goods and products has led to chaos that made many individuals rich, and I'm sure some less rich. Overall, it can be argued that individuals have been given a choice to free themselves from a national currency and decouple their own financial well-being from that of where they live. More choice is more chaos, and I think that's good. Real good.
So if chaos looks like choice, and we want to be cutting edge, and you're giving your users a choice to break away from their current constructs, then you may be considered a master of chaos, a harbinger that captures the attention of these large organizations.
Back to the Future
or How to be Cutting Edge
To be cutting edge doesn't mean you have to master VR, blockchain, and AI to bring forth the perfect digital bank (however if you do, please do throw some credit my way). It means that you need to think differently, be sure that you are aware of how to leverage the latest tech to give you an advantage against your competitors, and don't be scared to pivot. If your first idea or product takes you to the mass success we look for, then you may have a more lucrative career as a fortune-teller.
Use data and analysis to solve problems that need solving and keep digging into your domain. You may find a problem that's been ignored or is going to be created by other companies trying to solve problems as well. Look to the jeans as your motivation. Sure some gold miners struck gold by sheer chance and luck, but the jean was a guaranteed success thanks to the conditions created in the mining caves.