My perspective as a VC: if you're building exactly the same product then that sucks. You'll only be able to compete on price, and that's not a good outcome. Exe

My perspective as a VC: if you're building exactly the same product then that sucks. You'll only be able to compete on price, and that's not a good outcome. Execution is important, but that's more clear after launch, once people try out both products, write reviews, etc. However, having a competitor launch just before you gives the advantage of seeing their messaging, seeing how people react to it (esp. in the comments section and in how quickly/slowly the project gets funded), and might give you ideas for how to better differentiate. If you do a good job with that differentiation then your competitor will educate the market while you get people excited by releasing something that's better in some key way. The differentiation could be in your product, your messaging, how you package or bundle your product, etc. You shouldn't throw 6 months of work away. You can think of what you've built as no better than the competition, or you can think of it as 90% of the way to being a lot better than the competition. I think the second mindset is more constructive.