You've struck a chord: there is a problem to be solved. But your solution is imperfect. This is the ideal situation! If your solution was perfect, someone cou

You've struck a chord: there is a problem to be solved. But your solution is imperfect. This is the ideal situation! If your solution was perfect, someone could just copy it as is. But if you need to keep improving it, building it, it becomes harder to copy, and you gain a deeper understanding of the problem (and solution). This is valuable. Any copier-guy is playing catch up - and people usually aren't all that keen on that guy. The danger is if you perfect it! Because then you are standing still, with no where to go, and it's inevitable that others will catch up. The copier guy is now just as good as you (perhaps better on other factors that you don't care about, but some users do...). The ideal problem is one that can't be solved, like some human need that technology can't actually perfectly address. You then have an endless runway to perfect it. With your headstart, deeper understanding of problem & solutions (and most importantly) all the market benefits of being The Guy (feedback on what works, complaints on what doesn't, statistics on same, more users finding more bugs, and let's not forget encouragement and admiration! Very motivating), you have the best chance of keeping that headstart forever. Well, that's my analysis of competitive advantage, anyway. :-) But I wonder if you're better off just making something cool that "people want", and not sparing an moment's thought for the competition...