Specialization can sometimes decrease your market size, but it can increase your popularity. Chalk.com is described as a “Microsoft Office for teachers”. It is a resource of productivity apps for teachers in elementary schools to high schools, grades K through 12. Chalk.com helps teachers deal with and produce lesson plans, assessments, and collaboration between teachers to provide for a better job and an easier life for teachers. It is now used in 20,000 schools all over the world. Its main solution is that it helps ease the complexity of personalized student success.

William Zhou, the co-founder and CEO of Chalk, was inspired when his perception of teachers got changed when he went back to visit some old high school teachers. He used the think that it was an easy job with three months summer vacation. When he talked with his old teachers, he realized that it is a lot more difficult than he thought. He decided that this was an opportunity to help out those who helped him out in high school. He decided to make a collaborative suite that teachers can get access to great resources and connect with each other and make everyones lives a little bit easier.

I think when most entrepreneurs look for a market, they try to see how they can reach the most people to gain the most money. Zhou did the opposite. He found a small niche market and decided to capitalize on them. He found a problem they were facing and one that most entrepreneurs would overlook when looking for an idea for a product or service. He also found a social connection where he felt he owed his teachers something for helping him become the entrepreneur he is today.