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I 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

I 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 ago
Focusing 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 ago
  Not 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 ago
  is 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?
- btown 5y ago
  Agreed. Competitors can come in all shapes and sizes. Some can be real bullies or suck oxygen out of the room, some will be actively pulling away from your niche giving you tremendous opportunity to position your product as they misstep, and it's important to keep tabs on product changes and understand what kind of love (or ideally hate) your would-be customers are feeling from the incumbents. What's most important, in this context, is to have a founding team approaching the dynamics from different viewpoints, who can rein each other in if the instinct to monitor one's competition ever exceeds the strategic value, and share the burden of understanding the landscape of what customers need and what they think they can get elsewhere. IMO, having a great team is just about the only "startup rule" that is true without exception.
renewiltord 5y ago
It’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 ago
This is not good advice. In order to understand your market you need to understand your competition.
trinovantes 5y ago
History has shown us that the best product doesn't always win e.g. LaserDisc
beachy 5y ago
That'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 ago
This. 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 ago
If you focus on your product you also must understand the medium it is in. Competitors can be a significant part of that medium.

lanternfish 5y ago

Focusing 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 ago
Not 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 ago
is 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?
btown 5y ago
Agreed. Competitors can come in all shapes and sizes. Some can be real bullies or suck oxygen out of the room, some will be actively pulling away from your niche giving you tremendous opportunity to position your product as they misstep, and it's important to keep tabs on product changes and understand what kind of love (or ideally hate) your would-be customers are feeling from the incumbents. What's most important, in this context, is to have a founding team approaching the dynamics from different viewpoints, who can rein each other in if the instinct to monitor one's competition ever exceeds the strategic value, and share the burden of understanding the landscape of what customers need and what they think they can get elsewhere. IMO, having a great team is just about the only "startup rule" that is true without exception.

renewiltord 5y ago

It’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 ago

This is not good advice. In order to understand your market you need to understand your competition.

trinovantes 5y ago

History has shown us that the best product doesn't always win e.g. LaserDisc

beachy 5y ago

That'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 ago

This. 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 ago

If you focus on your product you also must understand the medium it is in. Competitors can be a significant part of that medium.