Inside Elitheon’s Market Selection Framework: How They Chose 5 Industries from a $2.3T Opportunity
When tackling a market as vast as global counterfeiting – valued at $2.3 trillion – the challenge isn’t finding opportunities, it’s choosing which ones to pursue. In a recent Category Visionaries episode, Elitheon CEO Roei Ganzarski revealed their systematic approach to market selection that helped them navigate this massive opportunity.
The Two-Question Framework
Instead of chasing the largest market segments, Elitheon developed a focused framework built on two critical questions. As Roei explains, “Who are the industries that one know and acknowledge that there’s a problem” and “Where are the industries that if you get it wrong, the consequence is high, either financially or operationally.”
This consequence-driven approach led them to focus on five specific sectors:
- Transportation (automotive and aerospace)
- Defense
- Pharmaceuticals and medical devices
- Precious metals
- Luxury goods
Each sector was chosen not for its market size alone, but for the severity of authentication failures. Take healthcare, where Roei notes, “10% in the first world countries… of medicine will be either fake or gray market. In the third world countries, you’re looking at up to 30% counterfeit.”
Resisting Market Temptations
The challenge in market selection isn’t just choosing where to focus – it’s maintaining that focus when other opportunities arise. Roei emphasizes this point: “Not all revenue is good revenue. If it’s revenue that defocuses you as a company and takes you off your path for the wrong reason, it’s the wrong revenue.”
This discipline has been crucial in maintaining strategic focus. Instead of pursuing every potential application of their technology, they’ve concentrated on sectors where authentication failures have severe consequences. As Roei illustrates with a real example from the defense industry, “Two years later, the wife said, under the Freedom of Information Act, I want to know what happened. And lo and behold, there’s a high likelihood… that the computer board, the chips on the injection seat that are responsible at the right time to open the parachute were counterfeit.”
Building Market-Specific Solutions
Their focused approach extends beyond market selection to solution development. Rather than creating a one-size-fits-all product, they’ve developed deep understanding of each industry’s specific challenges. Take their work in precious metals: “Pure gold from the Congo or Rwanda, kind of like blood diamonds. There’s this gold that’s illegal because it uses child or slave labor to mine it. But when it’s put into a bar and it has the logo of a European company on it, and you check that it’s gold, and then you think it’s okay.”
This market-specific knowledge allows them to build solutions that address unique industry challenges while maintaining their core technology approach.
For B2B tech founders, Elitheon’s framework offers valuable lessons in market selection. Instead of chasing the largest potential markets, focus on sectors where:
- The problem is acknowledged and understood
- The consequences of failure are significant
- Your solution can create transformative impact
This approach not only helps in initial market selection but provides a clear framework for evaluating future opportunities as your company grows.
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