Achieving product-market fit (PMF) should be the most prioritized objective for every early stage startup. PMF is when the startup has i) identified which users are desperate for the product, ii) made a product that customers can’t get enough of (demand feels exponential), and iii) found a business model that works. If the startup does not achieve PMF, it will die.
Drive initial adoption by making a product so good that it is irresponsible for a user to not use over the competition. To ensure long-run unfair competitive advantage, understand what about the product is hard to replicate (e.g. some form of intellectual property, network effects, or scale required) and double down.