Contrary to common advice, Databricks intentionally builds new products for just one or two target customers. They argue that the risk of over-optimizing for a specific use case is much smaller than the risk of building a generic product that serves no one well by trying to "boil the ocean."

Co-developing a product with just one enterprise client (N=1) is a trap. It leads to a "Frankenstein" solution tailored to their unique problems, making it nearly impossible to scale and sell to a broader market without significant rework.

While you gain deep empathy for one user (yourself), you risk creating a product so tailored to your expert needs that it alienates the broader market. This "market of one" paradox can lead to building powerful but commercially unviable tools for a niche group of power users.

Many businesses believe any paying customer is good. This 'serve everyone' mindset is costly, leading to unprofitable projects and diluted messaging. Strategically defining who you *don't* serve is as important as identifying your ideal client, as it focuses resources and sharpens your value proposition, attracting the right audience.

If you build a product for a problem that only one customer has, don't just abandon it. Offer to turn it into a high-priced, bespoke solution for that single customer. This salvages the work and creates a profitable revenue stream, avoiding a total loss.

Businesses often get bogged down by tactical feature requests, especially commitments for a single customer. This consumes precious capacity that should be allocated to strategic initiatives, allowing competitors with a clear vision to gain an advantage.

Avoid the trap of building features for a single customer, which grinds products to a halt. When a high-stakes customer makes a specific request, the goal is to reframe and build it in a way that benefits the entire customer base, turning a one-off demand into a strategic win-win.

The founder fired a large, "sexy" customer not because they needed custom features, but because they required a manual workaround (like an FTP data transfer) that relied on another person and broke the system's core logic. This distinction is key for identifying unsustainable early customers.

Many founders fail not from a lack of market opportunity, but from trying to serve too many customer types with too many offerings. This creates overwhelming complexity in marketing, sales, and product. Picking a narrow niche simplifies operations and creates a clearer path to traction and profitability.