Ask HN: Do we need to be first to market?

My co-founder and i have been working on a web3 saas mvp for a couple of months, we're getting to the point were we've broken a lot of ground and are beginning to provide some for real value for a few customers.

Issue is, since we've started building giant companies like Salesforce, Shop, A16Z backed Startups have announced initiatives that would directly compete with our platform.

Co founder and I feel our value prop is unique but we're nervous that these giant companies have a massive edge on us especially if when they launch better versions of the same products...

Do we need to go more niche to stay alive or should we just stay the course?

I think it's very hard for anyone to give you advice because there are too many variables, and we also don't know much about your thing. You say you have unique value prop but then you mention "if they launch better versions of the same products". So which one is it, objectively?

How much money you have it's also important (perhaps the most important). Can you and your friend compete against a company with $300K budget for sales & marketing in the next 12 months? I've been in this spot once when I launched a product at the same time with another startup. I invested $10K of my own money, they got $350K funding. 2 years later both products are gone. I lost $10K of my own money, they lost $350K of investor's money. What you take from this is up to you.

Rn