At both Viaweb and YC, every minute I spent thinking about competitors was, in retrospect, a minute wasted.
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Only if you’re going to copy their great features, e.g. Snapchat Stories as implemented in Instagram Stories. Facebook are masters at this.
It may be useful for some companies to think about competitors. That's why I didn't phrase it as a general rule. In particular it may be useful for more established companies to. If a startup has to, though, they're probably doomed.
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You can always borrow concepts and ideas from other startups, too. It's good to look, and understand the competitive landscape in detail, but not to obsess over.
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This is information breakfast food for those who don’t endorse cereal before noon.
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It usually means you have nothing innovative and are already behind the curve - your competitors already have everything you're looking to develop - today
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Network-effect based companies have to worry about competition because copycats can have network effects, too.
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This reply made it clearer. As an early stage startup founder I agree. The one reason I know I have competitive advantage is knowing the competition isn’t worth mentioning. Comps? For sure!
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100% agree, another angle to consider is phase - dev vs sales. During sales cycle, unless a company is a category creator and heads and shoulders above competitors, every customer will ask/compare with alternate options
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Uber wasn’t wasting time when they were thinking about copying Lyft’s p2p model. Advice for startups on competition doesn’t lend itself to 140 characters.
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it's 280 now, but definitely this is the worst platform for nuance
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