Today I got lunch with a friend who recently put his startup on hold. He's remaining productive, as is good, and is continuing to educate himself, and refine his ideas. We talked briefly about why his startup hasn't already become successful -- why it didn't connect with users in the way he wanted it to.

He described his product as being something that is at the intersection of technology and food, taking some of the more advanced ideas of how tech affects our daily lives, and making it available to people who are really into food.

The most interesting things are on the leading edge -- where the early adopters live (food, tech, music, whatever). The useful things eventually make their way out of early-adopter-ville (where they may get lost in the noise), into the mainstream. But while they're still on the leading edge, it's only available to people who spend the time and energy to be an early adopter.

Hence his problem. The previous version of his product was aimed at the intersection of two big trends, but it required the person be on the leading edge of both of them -- that takes a lot of time and energy, more than just being a solo-early adopter. If early adopters are 10% of the total market, and you're aiming at more than one type of early adopter, then you're looking at 10% of 10% -- a small addressable market.