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So I have built something that already exists...now what?

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So I have built something that already exists...now what?

#1

Post by bradhe »

So this is actually cross posted from r/startups at reddit. I trust you guys more than the hive mind on this one.

Well, it turns out that the project that I've been working on for the past few months in hopes of escaping my cube one day has complete feature parity with another company's product! In fact, not only does it have complete feature parity but the other company's product has all the features that I wanted to implement. The company in question is squareup.com.

Question is...what should I do? Should I try to out-innovate them? Or are they so far ahead of the game that I should move on and find something else? I think I see some room for innovation in this space still; however, they've got capital, man power, etc. and I don't.

As of now I have a prototype that's good enough to show off, basically, that could be grown in to a beta pretty easily. So I don't have a huge investment in terms of time at this point; however, starting over on something else sounds kinda scary...

Anyway, I'm only any good with the technology part of this stuff, still learning the business/management end. Any advice that you guys can pass along would be great!

Re: So I have built something that already exists...now what?

#2

Post by adrianscott »

one approach is to try and target a niche of the market, where you can get closer to the customer (ideally a high-frequency niche) and get more social, and use a social campaign to get key influencers on board. it may take a bit of brainstorming on that one though.

there's a good book on marketing strategy by some ex-microsoft guys that explains 3-5 standard market entry strategies. i suggest finding that. can't recall the name. has a picture of a football play on the cover i think. enjoy and good luck.

Re: So I have built something that already exists...now what?

#3

Post by usiegj00 »

It's a really good problem you have here. If you're self admittedly not good at the business/management end, I'd encourage you to think about what your real goal is. That is--I often find myself building products because--well--I love to build products. It's my hobby.

On the other hand, I've been involved with enough startups to know that most of my attempts to commercialize my products will probably fail. So back to goals--you say yours is to escape your cube. Do you mean:

1. I want to escape the type of job that puts me in a cube.

2. I want to no longer work as a developer.

3. I want to no longer work--since I'm filthy rich.

Those span the gamut of goals and without knowing what you are really after, it's hard to give you advice on how to proceed. For the sake of adding some direct reply, let's assume it's #1 above. In that case, I'd say--keep honing your skills, demo your product and use it as a calling card for a job search with companies you think you'd be a fit with (maybe even Square). Don't bother the commercialization path and don't sweat the competition--since this is lateral to your goal of a better workplace--and a lot more achievable than a commercially successful startup.

Hope that helps.

Re: So I have built something that already exists...now what?

#4

Post by mdolon »

Square has secured at least $10M in funding (http://www.crunchbase.com/company/square) and are pretty far along from what I can tell. That said, there's almost always room for competition, especially in the payment gateway market. If you think you can make something that is better/cheaper/simpler/etc., I'd say go for it (since you've already been working on this for the past few months). Find a partner to help you out and if you need money, try pitching to local angel investors. If you can seriously compete with Square (and convince them of that), it shouldn't be hard to get some kind of seed funding.

Re: So I have built something that already exists...now what?

#6

Post by CyberFonic »

You'd have to catch up before you can pass them. They have features, capital and business and sales skills that you lack. Time to pivot (read up a bit on Steve Blank). Find a different market to apply the work completed to date. Another critical question is: "How good is your understanding of the customers' needs?" Talking to your potential customers is the best way to figure out where to pivot to.

Re: So I have built something that already exists...now what?

#7

Post by eande »

You have to ask yourself what is your real goal? Making such prototype is 5-10% of the overall task. Market that kind of product and commercialization is the rest of it. If you truly want the product to come to market I would try to find potential customers and than try to close a first round of angel investors. Following than would be to build up a small team, continue product development and so on. You can see it is all in the execution towards the goal and that closes the comment with the same starting question. What is your real goal?
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