> it’s incredible hard to “start small” because your being judged against all the incumbents
Then you're probably addressing the wrong market. I found _The Innovator's Solution_[1] by Clayton Christensen pretty useful to understand that. You want to address a market that is underserved or not served at all by the existing big players. Often, it's by providing a service that is much simpler, much less powerful, but cheaper and/or more accessible than the existing solutions.
https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Cause...
The solution?
https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Solution-Creating-Sustaini...
Then you're probably addressing the wrong market. I found _The Innovator's Solution_[1] by Clayton Christensen pretty useful to understand that. You want to address a market that is underserved or not served at all by the existing big players. Often, it's by providing a service that is much simpler, much less powerful, but cheaper and/or more accessible than the existing solutions.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Solution-Creating-Sustaini...