I've been working on an app that I believe will be beneficial to millions of people. And I've seen a few built and deployed that are SOOOOO close -- and even an announcement by a VERY big player that is also close.
But frankly, I believe they've all misfired.
And that it's my app that will literally change the world.
So I keep plugging away.
Alone.
We'll see if anybody actually uses it though. It's always a crapshoot.
I already dropped the ball once when I had essentially the same idea as Lyft or Uber -- but decided not to pursue it when I read Apple's rules against transportation-related apps.
I'd be willing to bet that hundreds of us had that idea. It was that obvious.
But Uber and Lyft actually built and deployed something.
And apparently those rules were rules that could be broken.
According to the book "12 laws of marketing", that is a good thing. Mean exist a market, and somebody is already targeting them.
Is like food stores cluster in a location, is easier if exist a way for the customers to see "look, here is where food can be buy!"...
----
Also:
Not only somebody else is building it, many must already do it... is very unlikely somebody truly open a "new market".
---
The same book say you must be the #1 in a market. Failing that (like the 99% case) you must create a niche that make you the #1.
For example:
You can't be the #1 beer seller
But,
You can be the #1 beer with fruit flavors seller.
---
I before stop to do like a dozen of projects, scared by MS, Google, and others when them announce some stuff (that sometimes, only vaguely :( ) were similar to my ideas.
Now? I regret all that! None of the stuff they do was even closer to the style I was looking for...
Now, I lost my opportunity to do fun/side projects (now, need to bring money to the table). I'm trying to build 2 side projects, and despite are "common" and I move slooowwwww (responsibilities!) I don't worry anymore: Is more likely I will fail because myself, and even if I build a "copy-cat" is clear that I will bring something else to the table, just because I'm not the others...
So, don't stop ever because what are others doing.
If it's open-source, see where you can contribute, for example, documenting the code or adding a feature you think they're missing.
If it's not open-source, see if they're hiring. In your cover letter mention that you had a similar idea, but it differed in x, y, and z ways, and include the pros and cons of your your different features and implementation methods.
Good points, but always depends right?
I need this tool and it happens someone has done the dirty work and will take forever for me to DIY (it requires a lot of research and understand how X works). I used the tool, and I found a bug which affected usage, and I fixed it because the tool was opensource.
But I always note I don't actually decide what goes into that software. I can argue about why X feature is needed or why Y should be implemented in Z way, but I don't own that repo. Of course this is the beauty of open source just fork it (with the cavaet of watch the license which many probably doesn't care or doesn't have the knowledge to understand what X license mean to a user and to a contributor). But if I were to test my own ability and feel proud "yes I build it from scratch" I will build one from scratch. There is just that one idea that "I wish I was famous and getting tons of likes and respects because I built something that hundreds of developers are benefiting, being original creator vs a contributor.
Very few people go the distance with their projects. If you think you'll be someone that does, then go for it. We've had the biggest companies to startups enter our space, and many already in it before we started. The difference, I think, is that few have the courage or focus to push hard on it day after day for years at a time.
This is what I was thinking well staffed and funded projects have a high rate of failure, bootstrapped and underfunded projects have an even higher rate of failure. The odds are that project will never hit the market in the first place.
Nobody cares about calling dibs. People will move to the product that provides the best value; a subjective assessment that is constantly being re-evaluated as conditions are ever-changing. Also, execution never looks the same even if the ideas are identical.
If you think you can build something of value for people and you care about the problem then do it or join others already doing it. If a competitor makes a mistake, learn, and if they succeed, adapt. Everything else is a distraction from solving actual problems.
Build it. Not anyway, just build it. Two houses on the same of the street, built by different neighbours, may be or less similar. The street gets better by 2+ neighbours focusing on making the street better.
Not everyone uses Cisco, some people use Juniper. Not everyone uses HP, many use Dell and others. Not everyone has a LAMP stack, some prefer SQL Server, IIS, and .NET.
There's many ways to differentiate. Maybe yours can be more featureful. Maybe it can be simpler; not everyone wants everything to be covered in options. Maybe you can iterate faster; maybe you can offer more stability and a more "corporate-aligned" update schedule.
Look for people who don't like the other person's product, find out why, learn from their mistakes, and try to serve users that they ignore.
It's your call man. As another poster mentioned, it really is all in the execution. If you don't believe you can compete and out-execute on some worthwhile dimension, then give up.
Otherwise quit second guessing yourself and get back to work.
Someone will always be either building what you'd like to, or chasing after you with a competitive product trying to eat your lunch.
Any market worth being in, will have plenty of competition early on.
Primarily you have to ask yourself if you can add value to the segment you're talking about. If you have something worth-while to offer customers / users. Such questions remain regardless of the competition or lack thereof. If you've got something valuable to offer, build it. There is always an angle to take against a seemingly superior competitor, whether that's on price, features, support, customization, ease of use, et al.
It depends. If I'm building it for my education/fun I'll carry on. If I'm building to use or for others to use, I'll move on to something else. I have way more project ideas that time to work on them, so I don't want to waste my time.
It's all about the execution. If two people have a great idea the winner will be the one who executed better.
i.e. They scaled better, they used appropriate tools, they had a functioning team, they moved first, they listened to customers, they pivoted and stayed agile, they remained focussed on their goal etc. etc.
On the other hand, some products have network effect, which can make them hard to assail once they've got momentum.
Also don't forget the 10x 'rule' - you need to be 10x better than an existing product if you're doing the same as an established product.
As others have mentioned you may also be attacking different market segments e.g. business/consumer, geographical region, age group, etc.
Come to think of it, aren't there one or two books on the subject ;-)
How many things are brand new and innovative? Most aren't, most are iterations, or just a more successful effort at something that has been done before.
If you want to build it, build it anyway. Build it for passion, for the experience, for interest, or for any other reason. Or don't, that is ok too.
If it is to learn something, the answer is obvious: build it anyway. You will still learn pretty much all of the things you otherwise would have.
If it is because you feel that the world needs this thing to exist, and it'll become a better place because it does: see if you can contribute to the other people's work. If not, see if what they're doing meets that need and be happy that other people shared your vision of a problem to be solved.
If it's because you wanted to make a company and earn a living: keep going. There are thousands of niches in businesses. You can find yours.
Keep building it, but don't release until the other people do. This will do a few things.
First, it will vet out the market of the product. We are told to look for something new and innovative, but truth be told, the best way to predict the success of a product is to analyze the performance of similar product.
Second, it will give you some insights on areas within your own product to improve as well as ideas on how to differentiate.
To quote Alan Cooper, you don't want to be first to market, you want to be best to market. Build something great and let your opponent make the painful first inroads.
Wait for a new idea. Each of us has very specific talents that others don't. If you can find yours, you can be the one building it better. It's all about maximizing efficiency. Ideas come and go. You don't have to jump on the first one to succeed. Just on the one that makes the most sense.
How passionate are you about it? What do you want out of doing this? Why were you doing this? Do those reasons still apply?
Execution is everything is a meme in part because execution reveals hidden assumptions we did not know we had. Two people who nominally set out to do the same thing, are probably not actually doing the SAME thing. Just like there are millions of different cars that can all be called "cars" and yet have many differences, projects can nominally be the same thing and yet not really.
[+] [-] stray|10 years ago|reply
I've been working on an app that I believe will be beneficial to millions of people. And I've seen a few built and deployed that are SOOOOO close -- and even an announcement by a VERY big player that is also close.
But frankly, I believe they've all misfired.
And that it's my app that will literally change the world.
So I keep plugging away.
Alone.
We'll see if anybody actually uses it though. It's always a crapshoot.
I already dropped the ball once when I had essentially the same idea as Lyft or Uber -- but decided not to pursue it when I read Apple's rules against transportation-related apps.
I'd be willing to bet that hundreds of us had that idea. It was that obvious.
But Uber and Lyft actually built and deployed something.
And apparently those rules were rules that could be broken.
Oh well, live and learn.
[+] [-] hayd|10 years ago|reply
Best of luck not dropping the ball this time!
[+] [-] sj0000|10 years ago|reply
--------
0) It's validation.
1) Execution will be different, they might bork it or serve different customer segments.
Cons
--------
0) Find/create durable competitive advantage/s
1) Win-Lose/Lose-Lose competition sucks because it's often dumb (see also: Peter Thiel)
[+] [-] mamcx|10 years ago|reply
Is like food stores cluster in a location, is easier if exist a way for the customers to see "look, here is where food can be buy!"...
---- Also:
Not only somebody else is building it, many must already do it... is very unlikely somebody truly open a "new market".
---
The same book say you must be the #1 in a market. Failing that (like the 99% case) you must create a niche that make you the #1.
For example:
You can't be the #1 beer seller
But,
You can be the #1 beer with fruit flavors seller.
---
I before stop to do like a dozen of projects, scared by MS, Google, and others when them announce some stuff (that sometimes, only vaguely :( ) were similar to my ideas.
Now? I regret all that! None of the stuff they do was even closer to the style I was looking for...
Now, I lost my opportunity to do fun/side projects (now, need to bring money to the table). I'm trying to build 2 side projects, and despite are "common" and I move slooowwwww (responsibilities!) I don't worry anymore: Is more likely I will fail because myself, and even if I build a "copy-cat" is clear that I will bring something else to the table, just because I'm not the others...
So, don't stop ever because what are others doing.
[+] [-] jwatte|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] metasean|10 years ago|reply
If it's open-source, see where you can contribute, for example, documenting the code or adding a feature you think they're missing.
If it's not open-source, see if they're hiring. In your cover letter mention that you had a similar idea, but it differed in x, y, and z ways, and include the pros and cons of your your different features and implementation methods.
[+] [-] yeukhon|10 years ago|reply
But I always note I don't actually decide what goes into that software. I can argue about why X feature is needed or why Y should be implemented in Z way, but I don't own that repo. Of course this is the beauty of open source just fork it (with the cavaet of watch the license which many probably doesn't care or doesn't have the knowledge to understand what X license mean to a user and to a contributor). But if I were to test my own ability and feel proud "yes I build it from scratch" I will build one from scratch. There is just that one idea that "I wish I was famous and getting tons of likes and respects because I built something that hundreds of developers are benefiting, being original creator vs a contributor.
[+] [-] yesimahuman|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kls|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] neilellis|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rabbyte|10 years ago|reply
If you think you can build something of value for people and you care about the problem then do it or join others already doing it. If a competitor makes a mistake, learn, and if they succeed, adapt. Everything else is a distraction from solving actual problems.
[+] [-] zhte415|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stephengillie|10 years ago|reply
There's many ways to differentiate. Maybe yours can be more featureful. Maybe it can be simpler; not everyone wants everything to be covered in options. Maybe you can iterate faster; maybe you can offer more stability and a more "corporate-aligned" update schedule.
Look for people who don't like the other person's product, find out why, learn from their mistakes, and try to serve users that they ignore.
[+] [-] 0xdeadbeefbabe|10 years ago|reply
[0] http://wiki.osdev.org/Beginner_Mistakes
[+] [-] bink-lynch|10 years ago|reply
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9663904 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9663203
[+] [-] zxcvvcxz|10 years ago|reply
Otherwise quit second guessing yourself and get back to work.
[+] [-] adventured|10 years ago|reply
Any market worth being in, will have plenty of competition early on.
Primarily you have to ask yourself if you can add value to the segment you're talking about. If you have something worth-while to offer customers / users. Such questions remain regardless of the competition or lack thereof. If you've got something valuable to offer, build it. There is always an angle to take against a seemingly superior competitor, whether that's on price, features, support, customization, ease of use, et al.
[+] [-] neomech|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] neilellis|10 years ago|reply
It's all about the execution. If two people have a great idea the winner will be the one who executed better.
i.e. They scaled better, they used appropriate tools, they had a functioning team, they moved first, they listened to customers, they pivoted and stayed agile, they remained focussed on their goal etc. etc.
On the other hand, some products have network effect, which can make them hard to assail once they've got momentum.
Also don't forget the 10x 'rule' - you need to be 10x better than an existing product if you're doing the same as an established product.
As others have mentioned you may also be attacking different market segments e.g. business/consumer, geographical region, age group, etc.
Come to think of it, aren't there one or two books on the subject ;-)
[+] [-] thaumaturgy|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] inguinalhernia|10 years ago|reply
If you want to build it, build it anyway. Build it for passion, for the experience, for interest, or for any other reason. Or don't, that is ok too.
[+] [-] Seth_R|10 years ago|reply
We wrote two blog posts that you might find useful if you're in this kind of situation:
1. Why you should share your “secret” startup idea with anyone who will listen:
http://www.kilometer.io/blog/why-you-should-share-your-secre...
2. Don’t build anything until you have a clear startup mission
http://www.kilometer.io/blog/dont-build-anything-until-you-h...
[+] [-] Elepsis|10 years ago|reply
If it is to learn something, the answer is obvious: build it anyway. You will still learn pretty much all of the things you otherwise would have.
If it is because you feel that the world needs this thing to exist, and it'll become a better place because it does: see if you can contribute to the other people's work. If not, see if what they're doing meets that need and be happy that other people shared your vision of a problem to be solved.
If it's because you wanted to make a company and earn a living: keep going. There are thousands of niches in businesses. You can find yours.
[+] [-] Delmania|10 years ago|reply
First, it will vet out the market of the product. We are told to look for something new and innovative, but truth be told, the best way to predict the success of a product is to analyze the performance of similar product.
Second, it will give you some insights on areas within your own product to improve as well as ideas on how to differentiate.
[+] [-] SpendBig|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mgold|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrcold|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mz|10 years ago|reply
Execution is everything is a meme in part because execution reveals hidden assumptions we did not know we had. Two people who nominally set out to do the same thing, are probably not actually doing the SAME thing. Just like there are millions of different cars that can all be called "cars" and yet have many differences, projects can nominally be the same thing and yet not really.