3 ms·

I'd take this as a good sign, and even an opportunity to reach out to them. I have a funny story (but too long to get into) where I met the founder of a start-

I'd take this as a good sign, and even an opportunity to reach out to them. I have a funny story (but too long to get into) where I met the founder of a start-up that was in "stealth mode" and not very good at it, who told me all about his company before he found out I worked for their biggest competitor (it wasn't malicious, he just dumped all this info out). We ended up bringing both teams together for drinks after we landed and good talks about the industry ensued, but no secrets from either side were divulged. One way to look at it is that you've just found a group of people who look at the world the same way you do. You have a lot in common. Yes, you are going to compete for customers, but that can be viewed the same as trying to score a point in sports. Each point doesn't equal winning the game, but you want to compete for each point. This conversation came up at work this week as we have a somewhat well funded competitor, but they are also at the very early stages, similar to us. My co-founder asked if we should reach out to them. I didn't feel the need at this point, but have no fear of doing that later in the future. Imagine this. If you were both at a conference together, wouldn't it be nice to be able to say hello, know who each other are, and potentially respect each other rather than put your face in the clouds and pretend they don't exist? So, let them check you out, you can check them out. Maybe even connect on linkedin if that's your thing. If you don't take the initiative to be a host, how would you feel if you end up being treated as a guest?

genewitch 5y ago
The issue is capitalism removes the ability for "competition" except as something to either fear or "buy out" - why can't there be multiple copy stores or photo printers in a small town? If one is too busy to get your stuff done, perhaps the other isn't? No one has any issue with 5 barbers or hairdressers or whatever in a town. I dunno. Competition is good for the consumer, it's really bad for a business that's trying to please shareholders, be they public shareholders or private, as in the owner.
- BobbyJo 5y ago
  Competition results in mutually beneficial relationships all the time. Companies often take different paths solving the same problem, allowing competitors to complement each other down the road.
- pedalpete 5y ago
  I think you are severely misunderstanding capitalism. Capitalism strongly supports competition. Definition Capitalism "an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state." You may think that Microsoft is the big bad capitalist, but don't forget, in every market they operate in, they face competition. The scale they were able to achieve is not due to "fear or buy out", but rather due to network effects. Google is strong, not because of the product, or because nobody can compete. DuckDuckGo and others are trying, but simply because the muscle memory and brand are so strong. But don't forget, there were LOTS of search engines at one point. In capital intensive markets, you tend to have few competing companies just because of the cost to get started and operate. Look at all the airlines in the US, you may say "not everyone can start an airline", but again, that's not because of "fear or buy out", it's because the cost of getting started and then competing is so huge that you can't raise the capital to do it. Competition is good for the consumer, but I believe (and I accept this isn't generally accepted wisdom) that it IS also good for the business. Competition can push the entire industry forward, which is more engaging for everyone involved in the business as they need to work to keep their position. Think of it like soccer (football), if there were only one team, how interesting would the sport be, or if there were only two, or three. Does any league of sport have less than 10 teams? Probably not because at that level, the players aren't challenged the entire system goes into entropy. It isn't just that the fans lose out, the players also lose out on the opportunity to push themselves to their limit.
bradknowles 5y ago
I know that, in the mid-90s when I was working at AOL as their Sr. Internet Mail Administrator, we had accounts on the other major providers systems -- Prodigy, CompuServe, etc.... We also knew who our counterparts were at those other companies, and in fact it was Ed Raven at Prodigy who lead me to interview with Jay Levitt at AOL, and I got the job. At different stages, it might make sense to be more careful with how you let people sign up for your service, and who you let sign up. But in our case, it was beneficial for everyone involved to know who their counterparts were and to have accounts on their systems. Among other things, this let us build up tests for our systems that could quickly determine if there were major delays in getting e-mail from our systems to theirs, and if the delay was likely to be at their end or ours. And if it was at their end, it was to our benefit to notify them of this fact, because it was also impacting our own customers. But I can only speak for my personal experience.

genewitch 5y ago

The issue is capitalism removes the ability for "competition" except as something to either fear or "buy out" - why can't there be multiple copy stores or photo printers in a small town? If one is too busy to get your stuff done, perhaps the other isn't? No one has any issue with 5 barbers or hairdressers or whatever in a town. I dunno. Competition is good for the consumer, it's really bad for a business that's trying to please shareholders, be they public shareholders or private, as in the owner.

BobbyJo 5y ago
Competition results in mutually beneficial relationships all the time. Companies often take different paths solving the same problem, allowing competitors to complement each other down the road.
pedalpete 5y ago
I think you are severely misunderstanding capitalism. Capitalism strongly supports competition. Definition Capitalism "an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state." You may think that Microsoft is the big bad capitalist, but don't forget, in every market they operate in, they face competition. The scale they were able to achieve is not due to "fear or buy out", but rather due to network effects. Google is strong, not because of the product, or because nobody can compete. DuckDuckGo and others are trying, but simply because the muscle memory and brand are so strong. But don't forget, there were LOTS of search engines at one point. In capital intensive markets, you tend to have few competing companies just because of the cost to get started and operate. Look at all the airlines in the US, you may say "not everyone can start an airline", but again, that's not because of "fear or buy out", it's because the cost of getting started and then competing is so huge that you can't raise the capital to do it. Competition is good for the consumer, but I believe (and I accept this isn't generally accepted wisdom) that it IS also good for the business. Competition can push the entire industry forward, which is more engaging for everyone involved in the business as they need to work to keep their position. Think of it like soccer (football), if there were only one team, how interesting would the sport be, or if there were only two, or three. Does any league of sport have less than 10 teams? Probably not because at that level, the players aren't challenged the entire system goes into entropy. It isn't just that the fans lose out, the players also lose out on the opportunity to push themselves to their limit.

bradknowles 5y ago

I know that, in the mid-90s when I was working at AOL as their Sr. Internet Mail Administrator, we had accounts on the other major providers systems -- Prodigy, CompuServe, etc.... We also knew who our counterparts were at those other companies, and in fact it was Ed Raven at Prodigy who lead me to interview with Jay Levitt at AOL, and I got the job. At different stages, it might make sense to be more careful with how you let people sign up for your service, and who you let sign up. But in our case, it was beneficial for everyone involved to know who their counterparts were and to have accounts on their systems. Among other things, this let us build up tests for our systems that could quickly determine if there were major delays in getting e-mail from our systems to theirs, and if the delay was likely to be at their end or ours. And if it was at their end, it was to our benefit to notify them of this fact, because it was also impacting our own customers. But I can only speak for my personal experience.