I've created successful products (pretty close to commodity products, in fact) before where I tried to evaluate direct competitors, and found over 50 of them be

I've created successful products (pretty close to commodity products, in fact) before where I tried to evaluate direct competitors, and found over 50 of them before stopping counting. Here's what emboldens me when learning about competitors: When you initially had this idea, you weren't aware that all of these competitors existed. Which means that some segment of the market, including potential customers who are * similar to you* also don't know about all of the competitors. To them, the other people with the same idea might as well not exist.