Who actually wants this?
Five groups of people using the same new thing. You can see only how they behave.
Group A
10,000 licences purchased.17% weekly active.Usage spikes after internal training days.Most sessions begin from a link in company documentation.Renewal decided by procurement.
Enterprise seats.
Group B
Average session starts at 11:48 pm.They return without being reminded.They try things nobody taught them to try.They share screenshots with friends.When usage is capped, they complain. When access disappears, they notice within the hour.
Students.
Group C
High usage during working hours.Almost every account is employer-funded.They switch between three competing products.A change of vendor would go unnoticed.
Professionals on the company plan.
Group D
A very large number of signups.Most never return after week two.The ones who stay use one feature.
Everyone who signed up during the launch.
Group E
Pays the most per seat.Uses it least.Has asked for a dashboard showing that it is being used.
The executive sponsor.
If you had to start with one, which one?
Tap it.
You chose .
The names are above now.
They have less money than almost everyone else on this page.
Would you still start there?
Who uses it?
Students.
Who can buy access for thousands of them at once?
Universities.
The person who wants it and the person who pays for it are not the same person. That is not a problem to be solved. It is the shape of the market, and it has been the shape before.
1986
A new computer company, a documentary crew following it around. Its founder does not describe education as one market among several. He says the company was started around higher education, colleges and universities, because that is where a revolution in software was already happening. When the room turns to selling, the plan is campuses, and he tells his people the next ninety days are make or break on whether they can give those campuses something nobody else can.
Then they ask the campuses what the machine should cost. The answer comes back: three thousand dollars. He does not say ours is faster. He does not say they will pay more once they understand it. He repeats what they told him: they did not say make it three times faster and we will pay four thousand. They said at three thousand it is a hot product.
Why didn't you choose them first?
Maybe the first question isn't who can we sell this to?
Who would be disappointed if it disappeared tomorrow?
In 1986, a new computer company went looking for the people already living in the future.
They started on campuses.
2026
They're there again.
Stop selling past them.
The five groups are composites and their numbers are invented. The pattern is not. The 1986 story is from the documentary footage of NeXT's first years.