S1E2 Identify the Gap

"A gap is a niche that needs to be filled but has not yet been recognised. It is an opportunity for someone to find their way into the market to create something fresh"
​- Milambo Makani

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In this second episode of the podcast, we discuss how to identify gaps in the market - both in your immediate surroundings and structural gaps. 

For entrepreneurs, gaps are essentially opportunities disguised as voids, niches that need to be filled but have not yet been seen. So in order to transform these gaps into opportunities, entrepreneurs need to know how to identify gaps with which they can work.

To elaborate on the phrase, ‘identifying the gap’, we discuss our own entrepreneurial journeys in more detail. For Jess, the gap first appeared in the form of some stark statistics about the experiences of black women in the UK. Jess takes us through the evolution of the Black Women’s Project - a journey of listening and contextualising - from the moment of recognising a need for black women’s spaces and the need to balance ambition with wellbeing.  

For Milambo, the Widening Access Network grew out of the realisation that he and fellow co-founders had all encountered role models and mentors at pivotal moments in their lives. The Widening Access Network is a way of closing the structural gap and addressing the lack of positive role models for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

To identify the gaps that you as an entrepreneur can work with, Jess and Milambo encourage their listeners to look first and foremost to their respective immediate environments. 

We make the case that the aforementioned is a landscape our listeners can navigate better than anyone, and how proximity to the people in this landscape will continually reveal the nature of the problem they’re trying to solve. Leveraging this unique knowledge as an entrepreneur and changemaker will enable them to create solutions that not only work but are also scalable.

You can catch us again in a couple of weeks when we'll continue the Starting Up, Starting Out conversation with you.