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Ask HN: How do you research your competitor?

8 points by yaru22 ↗ HN
Hi HN,

I understand that the good execution is the key for a successful startup. However, that doesn't mean you should naively jump onto an idea thinking that you can out-execute all the competitors out there. I believe you should research your competitors and try to position your startup so that it can stand firmly and grow strongly in the middle of the competitions.

So my question is, how do you research your competitors? When you have a great and seemingly novel idea, you probably won't know who your competitors are. What's the best way to find competitors who are doing the similar thing as you are thinking of?

What I do to find the competitions are: - googling - search on Apple Appstore, Google Play Store, chomp.com, angel.co, crunchbase etc. - etc.

7 comments

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itsprofitbaron
Your ideas for discovering competitors are generally a nice standard way of identifying some of your competition.

However, it completely depends on the niche/topic - if you're building a Mobile App its completely different to if you're building E-Commerce Store etc.

Secondly, I believe that whilst there is some case to execute the idea better than your competition it’s actually more important to distribute much better than them.

I mean... does it really matter to know what they're doing?

There are 7 Billion people on Earth... you should assume at least 50 people are working on your idea.

You should be focusing on ensuring your distribution is the best it can be (I mean sure, there are advantages for using some competitor analysis especially if you're trying to take advantage of SEO etc)

The more you're focusing on your competition the less focus you're spending on your product & distribution and the less likely you’re going to fully exploit and maximize the opportunity.

badassdon
I second itsprofitbaron's suggestion that a focus on product is definitely the path you want to take. Don't let competition deter you from an opportunity you believe is there. However, you should at least take the time to play around with what your competitors have to see what they're missing and get inspiration on what you can do to make a better product.
lem72
A small cheap tip I like to use when I need to do a bunch of research or comparison would be to use something like fiverr.com and pay someone $5 to do it for you.
Toph
We didn't do much of this at all. We "knew of" some of our competitors by name and some of what they did but we didn't bother digging in, etc. I think (and this is purely an opinion) that when you become focused on your competitors or more aware, you end up being influenced whether you believe it or not. It leads to a lot of overlaps and copycat issues (see big companies competing).

By not concerning with that and concerning with building your product the exact way you'd use it to solve for your exact pain points and those of your early adopters, great things can come out of that that are sometimes planned and sometimes spontaneous.

damoncali
It's enough work just to find people to use your product. Why waste any effort checking out competitors? They'll find you if they're significant.

One tip though: use http://usertesting.com to do head-to-head comparisons between your product and the competitors'. It's eye-opening, and money well spent.

rajdesai225
The answer to this question very much depends on your niche market. The assumption is that the founder is a domain expert in what ever niche (domain) he/she is starting in. Keeping this assumption in mind, one should at a minimum know who the competitors are.

In my humble opinion, the more important question is: does your competitors know who you are?

If they know who you are, then I would have tremendous trust in your execution.

alexzender
We do the same. It's a good idea to understand the value proposition of your competitors and try to position yourself even better.

Keep their marketing tricks on radars as well - what they say, where advertise, etc