I've had this happen twice. The first time I gave up. In retrospect I'm thankful I did, because I later came to realize I wasn't a true believer in the idea. A

I've had this happen twice. The first time I gave up. In retrospect I'm thankful I did, because I later came to realize I wasn't a true believer in the idea. Although it was valid from a business perspective (as evidenced by the other people doing it), it wasn't anything that truly excited me. If you're trying to build something exceptional, being excited matters for both morale and creativity reasons. Regardless, in retrospect the first idea still could have succeeded. The competition's execution, while initially virtually identical, significantly diverged later on. The second time featured very similar initial execution, followed by a divergence so large that I don't even consider them competitors anymore. It's even happened a few more times on the same idea, and each time the end result is wild divergence. This is likely a result of the second idea being more complex. The moral of the story is that you shouldn't worry about competitors, even if it looks like doom and gloom right now. Divergence in execution is proportional to idea complexity. Unless the idea in question is dead simple with no conceivable variation, press on. Even so, press on anyways if you're a strong believer and the idea excites you. If you have considerable time invested but don't believe in a way that excites you: kick it out the door fast, throw it against the wall and see if it sticks. Good luck.