Other startup got there before me. Stop or continue? • Hacker News Board

Re: Other startup got there before me. Stop or continue?

#31

Post by mschy » Thu, Jan 07, 2010, 6:26 PM UTC

erikstarck wrote: post #11

I wrote a blog post about this a few weeks ago: http://blog.opportunitycloud.com/2009/12/21/stealth-disease-... Summary: "The cure for the First Mover Paranoia is to not view competitors as impassable roadblocks but as a verification that the idea actually works and has a market. That is in fact great news! Now the challenge becomes to find holes in the existing market (geographic, pricing, quality etc.) or to improv…

Agreed.

Find a portion of the target market that is unserved, or poorly served by their app, and differentiate your app to appeal to them. If this means making it narrower, good.

The only sort of competition I'd strongly discourage is straight-up head to head competition. You have to differentiate yourself somehow, even if not on a technical dimension.

Re: Other startup got there before me. Stop or continue?

#32

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 07, 2010, 6:28 PM UTC

gommm wrote: post #8

brk wrote: post #4

Keep going. Although, if your disposition is such that you get discouraged from a press release , you should stop and assess if you really have the personality and disposition for such a marketplace. Rarely ever do you see a successful marketplace with only enough room for a single product/solution. There is no free lunch, and an "overnight success" takes an average of 3 years to build. Along way will be many roadblo…

And anyway, in the worse case if after launching the app it doesn't become successful, you can always leverage it to get well paid consulting developing iphone apps. And consulting gigs are a great way to keep afloat while developing your next products :-)

[deleted]

Re: Other startup got there before me. Stop or continue?

#33

Post by slapshot » Thu, Jan 07, 2010, 6:29 PM UTC

Amazon was not the first bookstore.

Google was not the first search engine.

Did they give up?

Re: Other startup got there before me. Stop or continue?

#34

Post by mschy » Thu, Jan 07, 2010, 6:30 PM UTC

Tawheed wrote: post #9

Its not the idea of the product that counts, its what your vision is for how you want to solve the problem in your own unique way. If you're tapping into a real market, there will be tons of products that promise to solve the problem; you have to believe that your way is the best way to solve the problem. If you don't believe the above, then don't bother. Go get a normal 9-5 job.

you have to believe that your way is the best way to solve the problem.

I disagree. You have to believe that your way is Good Enough.

Good Enough plus effective promotion equals sales. Best is a recipe for Duke Nukem Forever.

Re: Other startup got there before me. Stop or continue?

#35

Post by aaronblohowiak » Thu, Jan 07, 2010, 6:31 PM UTC

Tawheed wrote: post #9

Its not the idea of the product that counts, its what your vision is for how you want to solve the problem in your own unique way. If you're tapping into a real market, there will be tons of products that promise to solve the problem; you have to believe that your way is the best way to solve the problem. If you don't believe the above, then don't bother. Go get a normal 9-5 job.

It's not the product. It's not the marketing. It's not the tech. It's not the market. Actually, it could be any of these things.. the key is to know what your competitive advantage is and run with it.

Re: Other startup got there before me. Stop or continue?

#36

Post by aaronblohowiak » Thu, Jan 07, 2010, 6:32 PM UTC

You should go to the VCs that usually compete with the VCs that invested in your competitor. This other groups' funding has created a "gap" in the portfolio of other VCs that you could fill. There is the first-mover disadvantage: they have to maintain backwards compatibility and they are now deeply sunk into their UI and marketing. You can learn the lessons they get from feedback. This is like free product testing.

Re: Other startup got there before me. Stop or continue?

#37

Post by tjoozeylabs » Thu, Jan 07, 2010, 6:32 PM UTC

post link to other startup

Re: Other startup got there before me. Stop or continue?

#38

Post by tjoozeylabs » Thu, Jan 07, 2010, 6:33 PM UTC

tjoozeylabs wrote: post #37

post link to other startup

also try marketing techniques along with the release of your app

Re: Other startup got there before me. Stop or continue?

#39

Post by sga » Thu, Jan 07, 2010, 6:39 PM UTC

You mention 'They created a really great app with all the features I was working on'. Thinking about your use of the plural of feature, I'm wondering if there is a way to pare down the feature set and provide a lightweight solution (as a differentiator to this competitor)? What is the one (or two features) that provide the real value in the app? Go for those one or two features and make it very simple to use.

Re: Other startup got there before me. Stop or continue?

#40

Post by Tawheed » Thu, Jan 07, 2010, 6:40 PM UTC

mschy wrote: post #34

Tawheed wrote: post #9

Its not the idea of the product that counts, its what your vision is for how you want to solve the problem in your own unique way. If you're tapping into a real market, there will be tons of products that promise to solve the problem; you have to believe that your way is the best way to solve the problem. If you don't believe the above, then don't bother. Go get a normal 9-5 job.

you have to believe that your way is the best way to solve the problem. I disagree. You have to believe that your way is Good Enough. Good Enough plus effective promotion equals sales. Best is a recipe for Duke Nukem Forever.

Sure, if Sales is your only goal. I'm not talking about being a perfectionist, but I'm talking about putting out the best product that you damn well can.

Why aim for mediocre?