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Ask HN: Protecting your innovation from the big guys

7 points by asker 15y ago

First off, excuse the cryptic nature of this post, hopefully all will become clear. I have a profitable startup started fromn scratch with no investment in a competetive, but relatively stale in terms of innovation, industry. We are a tiny player competing for business with plenty of big guys with massive budgets. We're not even close to being able to compete on advertising or marketing for example. What we have done now though is be pretty innovative and developed a unique service that will make people's lives who use these services that little bit better... a lot better in fact. We've been able to build this service (and it is great!), but to be honest I am scared of launching it because: 1. We simply dont have a budget for marketing or or contacts for doing a big launch. 2. Our service is pretty innovative, but it wouldn't take too much to copy. 3. We're worried we will launch, the big guys monitoring the industry will see the product, launch their own in a few months and drown us out with their massive marketing budgets. I guess the question is, how can we protect our product or service and avoid the above scenario? Thanks

malux85 15y ago
Mate, if it "wouldn't take much to copy" somebody is going to copy you. It will happen. So don't worry about it and launch. Launch the best damned product you can, and provide the best customer service you can. This is just a little bit of stage fright before the curtain is about to be pulled up ... fear not, launch! All the best. P.s. send us the URL, I'd love to see it
- glimcat 15y ago
  One big worry for me is somebody coming out with a free version - or worse, a bundled version. I usually cheer up after remembering what proportion of the software development job pool can't figure out a linked list.
rubinelli 15y ago
Big guys in a mature industry won't launch a similar product in a few months. First, they are monitoring the other big players, not the small fish. They won't even notice you before they start losing customers. Then it will take a few months for them to get all the approvals to hire a renowned firm to build the product for them, which, unless it's something you made in a couple of weekends, will probably take the better part of one year to get in the hands of their customers. EDIT: that's my general personal experience, but maybe you have better information on your industry. In that case you can try to apply for a patent, but I think you have more important things to spend your time and money on.
- asker 15y ago
  Thanks for the reply. My thoughts on patents are pretty much the same, its probably not the best use of time and money. Feels a risky strategy to just rely on them not noticing. I know a couple of competitors have signed up for our service and following on twitter etc.
  - rubinelli 15y ago
    Every company with more than a few hundred employees has enough projects in its pipeline for a couple of years. Copying an unproven product, no matter how great it looks, probably won't get pushed to the front of the line. Now, reversing the question, what if one of these companies launches a product similar to yours before you do?
marquis 15y ago
The key, I believe, is customer service and attention to your users. Follow up every single email on a personal basis. Big companies can never compete on customer service and people love feeling that they are being listened to - encourage direct feedback and engage your customers.
tskx 15y ago
well, i guess the best is to be insanely fast, cause the "big player" have mostly the issue that their inner bureaucracy takes time. Second is the already mentioned thing that you'll be to small to notice in first, so you can polish your service before the Battle begins. Last but not least before they try to copy you, they'll try to buy you ^^
mooli7dm 15y ago
Start small --> Heavily test your product --> Fine tune and perfect it to the point of your users falling in love with it --> Big bang (launch big, grab land.) --> Excel in product design and customer service --> Don't worry about competition. Good luck!

7 points by asker 15y ago

malux85 15y ago

Mate, if it "wouldn't take much to copy" somebody is going to copy you. It will happen. So don't worry about it and launch. Launch the best damned product you can, and provide the best customer service you can. This is just a little bit of stage fright before the curtain is about to be pulled up ... fear not, launch! All the best. P.s. send us the URL, I'd love to see it

glimcat 15y ago
One big worry for me is somebody coming out with a free version - or worse, a bundled version. I usually cheer up after remembering what proportion of the software development job pool can't figure out a linked list.

rubinelli 15y ago

Big guys in a mature industry won't launch a similar product in a few months. First, they are monitoring the other big players, not the small fish. They won't even notice you before they start losing customers. Then it will take a few months for them to get all the approvals to hire a renowned firm to build the product for them, which, unless it's something you made in a couple of weekends, will probably take the better part of one year to get in the hands of their customers. EDIT: that's my general personal experience, but maybe you have better information on your industry. In that case you can try to apply for a patent, but I think you have more important things to spend your time and money on.

asker 15y ago
Thanks for the reply. My thoughts on patents are pretty much the same, its probably not the best use of time and money. Feels a risky strategy to just rely on them not noticing. I know a couple of competitors have signed up for our service and following on twitter etc.
- rubinelli 15y ago
  Every company with more than a few hundred employees has enough projects in its pipeline for a couple of years. Copying an unproven product, no matter how great it looks, probably won't get pushed to the front of the line. Now, reversing the question, what if one of these companies launches a product similar to yours before you do?

marquis 15y ago

The key, I believe, is customer service and attention to your users. Follow up every single email on a personal basis. Big companies can never compete on customer service and people love feeling that they are being listened to - encourage direct feedback and engage your customers.

tskx 15y ago

well, i guess the best is to be insanely fast, cause the "big player" have mostly the issue that their inner bureaucracy takes time. Second is the already mentioned thing that you'll be to small to notice in first, so you can polish your service before the Battle begins. Last but not least before they try to copy you, they'll try to buy you ^^

mooli7dm 15y ago

Start small --> Heavily test your product --> Fine tune and perfect it to the point of your users falling in love with it --> Big bang (launch big, grab land.) --> Excel in product design and customer service --> Don't worry about competition. Good luck!