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When you find out you’re the copycat

24 points by bbirnbaum 6y ago

jakelazaroff 6y ago
Finding an established competitor can be great news! It’s an easy way to validate demand for your product.
abraae 6y ago
Some sage said to me early on in my career that you can't sell your product if you don't have any competition. I've found that potential customers often develop comfort with you once they can position you with regard to someone else. "We're like X, but cheaper" "We're like Y, but designed for mobile"
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  > you can't sell your product if you don't have any competition What he meant was that competitors indicate there's a market. It's unlikely that he meant that having competitors for competitors sake was useful in itself. An interesting example is Airbnb vs. the existing "legit" homestay sharing companies. The older companies proved there was a market, but Airbnb grew quickly without the older competitors being top of mind. And in fact, Airbnb actually illegally competed with hotels, not sharing homestays.
kolinko 6y ago
Having some competition is awesome, even if they are more advanced. They will help to build awareness of the need, and some users will not like their approach - possibly liking your more. Keep going! :D
tixocloud 6y ago
Ben, listen to your users and your heart. Competition is great as it validates a space and with a product like yours, there is more than enough room for other players. Best book to read for positioning yourself is Obviously Awesome by April Dunford. While you think Mailbrew is the competition, the real competition is “not doing anything”. As someone also mentioned, competition means there’s a need and may make it easier for people to understand what you’re doing. Every loves to harp on what makes you unique and sets you apart but do your users even know if any of your competitors even exist? Highly recommend April’s book. As she puts it well, feature-rich might be considered complex, bloated while less features make it simple, elegant. It’s all in the messaging.
blickentwapft 6y ago
Imagine if google gave up because altavista existed.
lostmyoldone 6y ago
To differentiate, better is often not as important as it seems, different might be enough, and sometimes even why is enough.
folli 6y ago
My two cents: go ahead, do it anyway and use the competition as inspiration on which features to add, which to leave away and which to improve. I was in a similar situation some time ago. I started working on an app with the main reason to teach myself Android programming. After a while I was quite content with the app and contemplated releasing it on the app store. I then started to become aware that this was a space were over a dozen other apps existed. I decided to go ahead anyway. Now it has grown to become a source of a bit of additional income and I dare to say meanwhile it's the most useful one of its kind on the app store (but still not the most popular one).
jborak 6y ago
It's great to have options and alternatives. I feel like calling your application a copy-cat is being harsh. What you've discovered is that there is a now a market of providers for the category of your application. If there was only one instance of any sort of application or tool the world would be boring and we'd be stuck with only stale options.

24 points by bbirnbaum 6y ago

Finding an established competitor can be great news! It’s an easy way to validate demand for your product.

Some sage said to me early on in my career that you can't sell your product if you don't have any competition. I've found that potential customers often develop comfort with you once they can position you with regard to someone else. "We're like X, but cheaper" "We're like Y, but designed for mobile"

redis_mlc 6y ago
> you can't sell your product if you don't have any competition What he meant was that competitors indicate there's a market. It's unlikely that he meant that having competitors for competitors sake was useful in itself. An interesting example is Airbnb vs. the existing "legit" homestay sharing companies. The older companies proved there was a market, but Airbnb grew quickly without the older competitors being top of mind. And in fact, Airbnb actually illegally competed with hotels, not sharing homestays.

kolinko 6y ago

Having some competition is awesome, even if they are more advanced. They will help to build awareness of the need, and some users will not like their approach - possibly liking your more. Keep going! :D

tixocloud 6y ago

Ben, listen to your users and your heart. Competition is great as it validates a space and with a product like yours, there is more than enough room for other players. Best book to read for positioning yourself is Obviously Awesome by April Dunford. While you think Mailbrew is the competition, the real competition is “not doing anything”. As someone also mentioned, competition means there’s a need and may make it easier for people to understand what you’re doing. Every loves to harp on what makes you unique and sets you apart but do your users even know if any of your competitors even exist? Highly recommend April’s book. As she puts it well, feature-rich might be considered complex, bloated while less features make it simple, elegant. It’s all in the messaging.

blickentwapft 6y ago

Imagine if google gave up because altavista existed.

lostmyoldone 6y ago

To differentiate, better is often not as important as it seems, different might be enough, and sometimes even why is enough.

folli 6y ago

My two cents: go ahead, do it anyway and use the competition as inspiration on which features to add, which to leave away and which to improve. I was in a similar situation some time ago. I started working on an app with the main reason to teach myself Android programming. After a while I was quite content with the app and contemplated releasing it on the app store. I then started to become aware that this was a space were over a dozen other apps existed. I decided to go ahead anyway. Now it has grown to become a source of a bit of additional income and I dare to say meanwhile it's the most useful one of its kind on the app store (but still not the most popular one).

jborak 6y ago

It's great to have options and alternatives. I feel like calling your application a copy-cat is being harsh. What you've discovered is that there is a now a market of providers for the category of your application. If there was only one instance of any sort of application or tool the world would be boring and we'd be stuck with only stale options.