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Ask HN: Would you reach out to the competition?
Pardon the deliberately vague post. This is about two teams with very complementary skills that are tackling the same problem and are at a very early stage. One team knows about the other and is considering whether and how to approach them for a possible team merge.
We are working on a product that takes a lot of passion to put to market because there isn't a successful precedent out there that it will work. It takes a lot of attempts at translating real world processes to the web but it will remove a tremendous amount of friction and add a ton of value if we get it right. Others have done tangential products and failed in the past, so no slam dunk by any means. I've recently discovered another team that is seemingly trying to solve the same problem. I think they are approaching things wrong from a strategy standpoint, but they may eventually learn better. Both of our teams are at a really early stage. Both teams have worked on the idea for more than a year and both of us are in Beta. They are in private, we less so. I think my team has a better brand, better traction, and a product-market fit somewhat established already because of that. The interesting part is that if combined, our teams have perfectly complementary skills and we are about to be living within an hour of each-other. The other team has also slowed down their promotions for some reason and is either redoing their product or giving up soon. So I started wondering: Should we combine efforts to solve this massive problem? Should I reach out to them? How would you do that? Would you even do it? It would be a very risky proposition and it would be a difficult conversation, because any information exchanged could be used against either of us. At the same time, I think if combined the joint team (of three founders) would be unstoppable. What would you do? How would you protect both teams?
P.S.(Please, don't seek out the other team.)
- angersock 13y agoWithout knowing anything else--fuck it, have them out for beers and see what happens? What's the problem domain?
- dzink 13y agoA business with network effects if it works. The risks are: we borrow each other's strategies and go on a direct collision course, we merge and the teams don't mix, we merge and diverge in strategy later on... One of the teams has a single founder doing tech and hustling, so the two tech people may mix but the third person may feel threatened too. The upside - we are the best freaking team for this on the planet and we move twice as fast and everyone's financial risks are lowered by faster seed money and faster execution. (because nobody is making money yet)
- hga 13y agoWhat do you have to potentially gain from it? More bodies, or minds, to "solve this massive problem"? That you can't acquire otherwise? Any effort along these lines, beside poaching individuals, is going to consume a lot of energy; even if successful, the opportunity cost will be high and possibly fatal to your effort. I'm also concerned by "They are in private, we less so." In my personal experience, as well as general observation, that's ... very bad, and also says something about each company's corporate culture. So given that there's a noticeable difference, it adds a potential for (more) friction in trying to meld your companies together.
- pedalpete 13y agoYes, do it. You're going to come across each other eventually. Why wait. Get out there and make the intro. You don't have to share your technology or strategy, just go and talk about your backgrounds, why you both entered the market, etc. etc. Don't go in with the attitude that you should merge. You don't know that yet. All you know is that they are in the same market. You don't know if the two teams are a cultural fit, if they have strengths where you lack them, etc. etc.
- 27182818284 13y agoI have but it has never lead to anything successful. Nothing harsh or abrasive has ever come up, it just ends up being a "Yeah!" reaction that fades with time to "Meh." or "That won't work" on their part.