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Ask YC: What to do when the competition surfaces?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask YC: What to do when the competition surfaces?

#11

Post by dkokelley »

This is a great opportunity for you. Now you have another team with more funding to use as a guinea pig. Their manpower and money can be used by you if you know what to look for. See what they do differently and note is it better or worse than what you have. See what they're doing identically and see if you can improve what you have.

Like was already said, when they send out press releases or spend marketing dollars, make sure you get to catch some of that. You rarely see MySpace in the news without a mention of Facebook. I'm not saying aim for the #2 spot, but use the fact that you're similar to benefit from what they do.

Re: Ask YC: What to do when the competition surfaces?

#12

Post by tom_rath »

Ignore them. Focus on your customers, not your competition.

You will always have competition (if you don't, you probably don't have a market) and if you're the best one to satisfy your customers you will succeed in your niche.

Joel Spolsky's "Fire and Motion" essays touch on this. The original is here: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000339.html

With an updated take on it here: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080401/how-hard-could-it-be-fi...

Every moment you spend worrying about your competition is one you're not spending focused on your product. Stick to your plan and deliver it.

Re: Ask YC: What to do when the competition surfaces?

#14

Post by johnrob »

Sometimes I think this is the IDEAL situation. You and your competitors, in a way, are validating each other. Also, nobody has the first mover advantage so (hopefully) none of the companies will bail. If all of you launch at the same time, the impact on the press will be greater for all of you because competitors usually get mentions as well. Finally, your industry might start be considered 'hot' because of all the activity.

Re: Ask YC: What to do when the competition surfaces?

#15

Post by kyro »

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #2

Don't be intimated by potential competitors--that's exactly what they want. Wait until you think what they are doing is going to actually impact your company before reacting. Continue as planned. Additionally, the competition might not be all that bad for you. They may help flesh out the market for you. You might be able to ride on their press and their advertising dollars. You might get ideas from their products. Fi…

Waiting until you figure out exactly what potential competitors are doing and then reacting might hurt more than it helps. Even if the impact a competitor has on your company is small, slight shifts in product positioning can always occur, and your end of the market could be encroached upon.

In the end, it's up to the users to decide. So launch quickly, listen to them, and help them choose your product as the best.

Re: Ask YC: What to do when the competition surfaces?

#17

Post by epi0Bauqu »

kyro wrote: post #15
epi0Bauqu wrote: post #2

Don't be intimated by potential competitors--that's exactly what they want. Wait until you think what they are doing is going to actually impact your company before reacting. Continue as planned. Additionally, the competition might not be all that bad for you. They may help flesh out the market for you. You might be able to ride on their press and their advertising dollars. You might get ideas from their products. Fi…

Waiting until you figure out exactly what potential competitors are doing and then reacting might hurt more than it helps. Even if the impact a competitor has on your company is small, slight shifts in product positioning can always occur, and your end of the market could be encroached upon. In the end, it's up to the users to decide. So launch quickly, listen to them, and help them choose your product as the best.

Well I didn't say wait until you figure out exactly what potential competitors are doing, but just until you think what they are doing is going to actually impact your company.

Re: Ask YC: What to do when the competition surfaces?

#18

Post by OpenWebU »

More funding does not mean they can execute. I learned that lesson at Oracle, where a team 5x larger and in competition with mine claimed they could do everything and the kitchen sink. But because they could not focus, their developers got new directives every week their code was very buggy. My team's code was focused but it worked and we had better credibility with the salespeople and customers. If you make noise, you will need to respond to it, and may get distracted. So, I'd stick to your original plan -- to launch in a week - in the grand scheme of things I don't know if being a week later makes a huge difference in winning the war (not the battle). If I remember correctly, google was not the first search engine created. BTW, congrats on being so close to public beta. :)

Re: Ask YC: What to do when the competition surfaces?

#20

Post by huhtenberg »

Just to counter all the "launch now" posts - rushing the launch can actually kill your project.

If you come out with a half-baked product, you will have an honour of making an initial splash. However the majority of your potential user base will not bite, they will make a note to themselves to come back when there's a better version. So all your competition will need to do is produce that version - better looking, more stable, with more features, etc - and you can kiss you chances of grabbing a decent market share goodbye.

In short - never launch things that are not ready. Not to the general public. This greatly diminishes your chances riding a "viral propagation" wave made by a launch announcement. It also tags you as a developer that's OK with releasing (essentially) crap rather than a polished product. If you want to gather a feedback, do closed beta.

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