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Ask HN: Existing startup directly competes with mine, now what?

9 points by ABrandt ↗ HN
I have been working on my latest startup project for a few months now. During this time, I have been researching the market heavily, but never found a company that did more or less the same thing as me. Now I have the option to completely revamp my product, or tweak it to cover the weaknesses of this existing startup. What would you do in this situation?

9 comments

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NonEUCitizen
If the market is big enough, there should be room for them to be Coke and for you to be Pepsi. Or preferably, vice versa.

If the market isn't big enough, there should be room for one of you to be Microsoft. Preferably you and not them.

Why do you think they'll beat you?

ABrandt
I actually don't think they'll beat me, but their established user base does create just yet another set of obstacles for my company. Fortunately, I have a solid business model where they appear to have none at all. As an early stage startup, I can't see them being able to weather the economic storm for long without any clear revenue stream.
LukeG
Focus on your users.

Listen, iterate, and build something that at least a few of them LOVE. I'd say that startups don't have the luxury of focusing on their competition.

ABrandt
Thanks for the great advice. Its easy to lose sight of this simple fact when you're juggling so much at once, but this absolutely makes sense.
ph0rque
You can contact them, talk about what you're doing, and see if there's a possibility of partnership. If you're both startups in a true sense of the word, you might benefit more from such collaboration rather than competition.
wavesplash
Don't waste time on partnerships with potential competitors unless you just want to get hired by them. At best you're giving them a roadmap to make you irrelevant. Until you have users/revenue you really have nothing to offer but ideas to steal.
gojomo
Being the only or being the first of a type is a minor factor in ultimate success. If the idea/market is good, it will support multiple offerings.

So whenever discovering a real or potential competitor, learn from what they do well if you can, but don't be discouraged.

andrewljohnson
That's good news. Anyone who doesn't have competitors isn't in a very good market.

My start-up has a dozen competitors, ranging from start-ups to billion dollar conglomerates.

zepolen
Or, they were pioneers in a market that didn't exist yet.