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Others have commented here that this is normal, but since you're surprised about this, here's some actionable advice (as someone that's worked in very competiti
by zeroxfe 5y ago
Others have commented here that this is normal, but since you're surprised about this, here's some actionable advice (as someone that's worked in very competitive spaces):
1) You should be doing the same thing. If you're not on top of the competition, they will chew you up, especially if they're better funded.
2) When you're doing your own competitive research, watch out for EULAs and ToS -- they're typically not enforceable (or very expensive to enforce), but many of them explicitly disallow this kind of thing. Use fake addresses.
3) Make sure your EULAs and ToS have similar provisions. Again, these are very difficult to enforce, but consider them as very cheap defence-in-depth.
4) Restrict your most innovative features (while they're in beta) to whitelisted user accounts. Again, not a perfect solution, but defence-in-depth.
Being a founder in a competitive space requires wartime thinking. As shitty as it is, your competitors are breaking rules and violating laws all over the place.
- nlitened 5y agoI think all that is a waste of startup founder’s time. Focus on your product, make sure your customers love it, and more new customers get to know about it. If you do that, competition does not matter; if you don’t do that, you lose regardless of competition.
- lanternfish 5y agoFocusing on your product presumably involves improving that product. Improving the product presumably involves understanding the end user. Understanding the end user presumably involves understanding their alternatives.
- OJFord 5y agoNot GP, but I think it's the last point that isn't necessarily.. necessary. It's one tool for sure, but not one I think you absolutely have to use - unless you have some indication people are increasingly picking the competitor over you, or especially and more simply leaving you in favour of the competitor.
- Mr_P 5y ago> unless you have some indication people are increasingly picking the competitor over you, or especially and more simply leaving you in favour of the competitor. If this happens, you've already lost. Software development has long lead-times. By the time there is significant customer attrition, bending the curve will be immensely difficult. Good engineering strategy requires over-reacting to the right signals, and trends in the broader ecosystem are a wonderful source of signals. Large tech companies know this, and there's a reason why they'll quickly throw billion-dollar budgets behind exploratory efforts in response to competitors. That said, it certainly depends on the industry. Some sectors are more fast-paced and competitive than others.
- zeroxfe 5y ago> Focus on your product, make sure your customers love it, and more new customers get to know about it. If you do that, competition does not matter; if you don’t do that, you lose regardless of competition. Ugh. I think these types of platitudes really trivialize the immensely difficult job of being a founder.
- newaccount2021 5y ago
- aaronblohowiak 5y agois making a product that customers love a trivial thing?
- AreYouSirius 5y ago
- CodeWriter23 5y ago> Ugh. I think these types of platitudes really trivialize the immensely difficult job of being a founder. Which includes creating EULA and ToS. How much time does one “waste” by adding a couple of extra paragraphs that can probably lifted from some standard copypasta boilerplate?
- sangnoir 5y ago> Which includes creating EULA and ToS. How much time does one “waste” by adding a couple of extra paragraphs that can probably lifted from some standard copypasta boilerplate? If you intend to use this adversarially, or if there's a chance it'll get tested in court - don't cheap out. Hire a lawyer to do this.
- thfuran 5y ago>If you intend to use this adversarially, or if there's a chance it'll get tested in court And if not, why have it at all?
- renewiltord 5y agoIt’s just market validation for features for a product. You think it is inefficient to search in competitors’ feature space for prospective features? Like the only real source of features is ex nihilo followed by customer research? Interesting.
- driverdan 5y agoThis is not good advice. In order to understand your market you need to understand your competition.
- trinovantes 5y agoHistory has shown us that the best product doesn't always win e.g. LaserDisc
- beachy 5y agoThat's a bit simplistic. Do you really think that there aren't at least a couple of things that your competitor has done better than you? Don't you want to know about them? You don't have to copy them slavishly but maybe you can be inspired by them for one of your own upcoming features.
- bradwood 5y agoThis. Also focus on your culture, your staff, and and other things that cannot be seen in functionality, like performance or running costs. If the competitor does copy your feature, will be built as efficiently, as scaleably, as flexibly, as cost-effectively as your implementation? These are attributes that the competitor cannot steal and the sum-total of these, plus your feature, will ultimately see you win out.
- otikik 5y agoIf you focus on your product you also must understand the medium it is in. Competitors can be a significant part of that medium.
- webmobdev 5y agoOr, reach out to your competitor and explore whether there is an opportunity to merge and grow together.
- scarface74 5y agoHow is he breaking rules and violating laws? They used real email addresses that easily identified who they were.
- svnt 5y agoThe flip side of OP’s point is that successful competitors will use this rationalization to give themselves some ethical standing when they are actually the first-mover bad actor. Whether or not the competition is doing it, the belief that they could drives the Machiavellian preemption described here. That said, it is the nature of the game. If you want to preserve your ethical stance sometimes the only winning move is not to play.
- seshagiric 5y ago+1 to update your EULA and ToS. Specifically mention that one cannot use the service with the intent to reverse engineer it or build competing services. Both these are standard in most online services like Google APIs etc. Google for example, asks that if someone publishes metrics comparing Google API performance with others then they must share information about the performance testing with Google (test data, test methodology etc.). On the other hand, remember that its perfectly legal for your competitors to gather publicly available information about your service. Good thing is other party is not hiding themselves so maybe they are playing fair. Btw your neighbor visited your home so be polite and visit them too :)
- lxgr 5y ago> Use fake addresses. Not a lawyer, but wouldn't that approach the domain of misrepresentation?
- serf 5y agoyeah no kidding -- "avoid the legal hassle of EULA and ToS by just lying on the contract yourself!" seems like pretty terrible advice without being accompanied by a huge disclaimer.
- lelandfe 5y agoSorry, are you saying that signing up for a service using e.g. temporaryaccount123@gmail.com is illegal? I doubt there is any contractual language that could mandate you to use a personally-identifiable email address.
- sangnoir 5y agoIt wont look good if it goes to discovery or otherwise ends up before a jury, it's a big flashing sign that says mens rhea if you're violating legally enforceable TOS/EULA terms. Dilligent competitors will still sniff you out by other means (office IP address, or if you're working from home, your work VPN)
- nyellin 5y agoThanks. Assuming we have a ToS which forbids this, is there anything even worth doing when it's violated?
- Dylan16807 5y agoI hate that "put unenforceable restrictive clauses in your ToS" is likely good advice.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]