Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 301 posts

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#181

Post by robertoestivill »

mrb wrote: post #127
dfex wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brilliant advice. I've have been on the exact journey you described - the idea that won't leave me alone (probably 6 years old now), Googled early on to see if anyone else had built it yet; found two existing companies pursuing the same thing, but in two different ways that don't quite match my own. I've been sitting on the idea for the last two or three years (it still won't leave me alone), and it has now evolved s…

As an angel investor, I'm curious. If you need seed funding, email me :) My contact info is on zorinaq.com

May I suggest investing in an SSL certificate for your website? I find it really hard to really trust if that's your contact information ;)

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#182

Post by bo1024 »

ankit219 wrote: post #134

My $0.02. If you feel like the problem exists, start building. But, if you think the problem is solved, then it makes no sense to proceed with it. For a startup, people use your product because they have a problem to solve. It does not matter how bad your UI/UX is, how drastically bad your flows are, if you are offering a solution no one else is, you will have users. It just needs to work. The more pertinent the prob…

I really like this perspective!

Maybe Zoom is a good example. For remote meetings, I was using Skype, Google Hangouts, and other video chat software. I kept having problems (especially on Linux). Products existed, but the problem wasn't solved. For me, Zoom solved the problem.

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#183

Post by jmkni »

rdm_blackhole wrote: post #27

I am in the same boat, I started a side project a few months ago and released the MVP without looking too much into the competition. But it turns out there is a lot of it. The reason I am not going to stop working on it is: - I am learning a lot while developing the new features(using lots of different tech that I don't necessarily use in my day job) - it allows me to channel some creativity that I did not know I had…

Lovely. If you are enjoying yourself and learning new things, why stop? Worst case scenario, it won't work as a business, and you will have learned some new skills.

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#184

Post by olavgg »

blacksoil wrote: post #29
karterk wrote: post #3

It depends on the size of the total addressable market. If the size of your target market is big, even if there are bigger established players, there is always a chance for a small, nimble product to carve out a niche. Established players often head upmarket (especially if they are VC funded). This often gives an opening for a new entrant to capture some of the SMB market share. An example closer to me: the search en…

I'm one of the people who'd definitely use an alternative to ElasticSearch! I hate the fact that elastic search is using Java. It just takes up too much memory.

FTS in PostgreSQL is pretty good, except for missing rank algorithms like tf-idf.

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#185

Post by markusbk »

blacksoil wrote: post #25
nexuist wrote: post #16

A while ago, I was in the same boat. Why try to recreate GitHub, or Uber, or Salesforce, or Facebook? And once I discovered any competitors in my idea's field, I would chalk it down to "not worth trying" and call it a day. But then I realized, if my town can have 3-4 Chinese restaurants with the same exact menus (probably supplied by the same exact distributors), and they've all operated continuously for over a decad…

You're making a really good insight here. I just wanna give some examples to add to your point. Here in Indonesia there are 2 big Uber clone (at least initially): Gojek and Grab that are both unicorn. In the beginning, they both started off ride-hailing. But after about 4 years, Gojek morphed into a payment company like Chinese We-Pay. It seems they were thinking of ride-hailing as a good customer-acquisition strateg…

Steve Yegge, high profile developer previously at Google and Amazon, now head of engineering for Data Insights at Grab, wrote a nice blog post about why he quit his job at Google to join Grab:

https://medium.com/@steve.yegge/why-i-left-google-to-join-gr...

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#188

Post by nicoburns »

rburhum wrote: post #171
alexobenauer wrote: post #38

Here's the recommendation I give to students when they ask me this question (it's a common one!): You come up with a brilliant idea, you obsess over it, you Google some info, and on your screen lies your idea, being done by someone else, for the last two years. You’re all too familiar with that sinking feeling in your stomach that follows. You abandon the idea almost immediately after all that excitement and ideation…

Great advice, so I am not going to repeat this because I 100% agree with it. However additionally I would add that if you think that it is the software alone that will make or break the company, then it is obvious that this is your first time doing this and that you have never brought a product to market. There are a ton of examples where one product that was of less quality absolutely annihilated another excellent p…

> good software is not enough to win.

But presumably if you combine it with the other stuff then it helps?

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#190

Post by redact207 »

Some great advice here. To add another perspective: sometimes you don't know where your idea will take you. A lot of your competition is locked into their path. Being at the outset of yours, the customers you listen to along the way may steer you in a different direction or pivot into a far better idea.
Post reply on HN