This might be different for seed stage folks, accelerators, etc. YC, for example, would quickly run out of markets if they avoided potential competitors. Also

This might be different for seed stage folks, accelerators, etc. YC, for example, would quickly run out of markets if they avoided potential competitors. Also, pivots happen a lot early, so you see early stage companies oftentimes become competitive after the investment. There are good ways for investors to deal with this... See Andreessen Horowitz and Instagram/Picplz: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/04/23/ben-horowitz-on-why-andreessen-horowitz-backed-picplz-and-still-stands-to-make-78m-from-instagram/ http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/04/23/ben-horowitz-on-why...