Serious question: How do you keep your stuff from getting replicated, tweaked and crushed by people with possibly better tooling and more machines than you? China comes to mind tbh.
This is a common concern amongst all founders I'm pretty sure. It certainly was for us at first. But it shouldn't be. Most people have their own problems to worry about. Obviously it depends on what stage you're at. If you are "pre-market", that is, if you haven't shipped yet. I wouldn't worry to much about it. Just focus on making it better than anyone else and understanding what your customers or potential customers actually want, from an end-to-end experience. It's unlikely that someone with better tools and more machines will ALSO be scrappier and learn to understand their user better and execute on all of those fronts better (I'm thinking customer service and e-commerce for example).
I would focus less on being replicated, and focus more on handling your own issues. Another way to think about it is if you get to the point where you product is good enough and with enough attention that it gets copied in a serious way, you've clearly achieved something.
Cover your bases with IP and be smart, but just focus on getting the best product to market fastest and delivering a great customer experience.
Honestly, you don't. You just need to focus on building something that people want and making sure that the experience you deliver is better than any other.
Further, if you start to think about your hardware as a means of delivering something else (for us, that's food), then getting copycatted on the hardware won't be as hard to deal with from a business standpoint.
pwinter28|10 years ago
I would focus less on being replicated, and focus more on handling your own issues. Another way to think about it is if you get to the point where you product is good enough and with enough attention that it gets copied in a serious way, you've clearly achieved something.
Cover your bases with IP and be smart, but just focus on getting the best product to market fastest and delivering a great customer experience.
drabie|10 years ago
Further, if you start to think about your hardware as a means of delivering something else (for us, that's food), then getting copycatted on the hardware won't be as hard to deal with from a business standpoint.
Hykso|10 years ago