How can you tell if something is going to be big? Check to see if it has anyone riding its coattails.

I see three ways someone can ride the coattails of an emerging** business or product: ancillary, derivative, or adjacent products.

Note: "Emerging" doesn’t need to mean brand new. Amazon was killing it as an online bookstore to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars each year before they made the choice to expand, but in hindsight, we can see that the description of the multi-billion dollar company as emerging was actually very accurate.

Ancillary:

Ancillary products are those created by a third party (not the original business or product owner) in order to support the usage of the main product. Things like training, consulting, tools, support groups, or forums that help product owners use the product the best they can.

The ecosystem that has developed around Bitcoin fits this example. There are a huge number of bitcoin forums, “gurus” selling advice, and tools for buying, selling, protecting, and mining bitcoin.

The same happened with Pokemon when it hit the US. Clubs, training guides and websites quickly sprang up to help 7-year olds everywhere get through the Mt. Moon zubats without throwing their Gameboys against the wall.

Derivative:

Derivative products are those created by a third party that don’t support the original business or product owner, but are dependent on the success of the underlying, original product. Another way to look at it is things that make the original product better or more extensible/customizable. Think apps, plugins, add-ons, partners, accessories.

For example: Crocs charms. All of the Slack apps, integrations and bots. The “Followers” app that tracks your Instagram follows and unfollows. Vidangel.

Adjacent:

Adjacent products are those created by the original product or business owner, but are different from the original product, that are successful in a different, but related vertical because of the reputation of the original product.

Note: To clarify what different but related means, consider Elon Musk.

Elon Musk moving from his Solar City product (solar panel powered electricity for homes) to his Tesla product (electric cars) IS related, (Electricity/Batteries), but different (Cars vs Homes).

Elon Musk going from Solar City to SpaceX (shooting rockets into the sky and landing them on platforms in the ocean) isn’t related at all, so it doesn’t fit here.

For example, things like Walt Disney jumping from producing movies to building a theme park in 1955 (different, but both related to entertainment for children and families). Buzzfeed’s jump from listicles to video content (different, but both related to lighthearted content spread virally), or Amazon's jump from selling books online to other products online.

Conclusion:

This doesn’t mean if a company or product doesn’t have signs of coattails that it won’t be successful. Some successful products just might not be built for creating ecosystems, partners or new channels, or they may be purposely creating a closed system. But if I was gambling and had to pick between a product with third party integrations, third party consultants, and emergence in multiple verticals, versus one that didn’t, I would pick the one with the coattails.