Startups: Reacting to Competition
If you are living in 2017, you’ve probably had at least one business idea. Maybe you want to invent a new way for college professors to grade papers, create a thriving virtual reality world, or just design a better coffee mug. You don’t have to be a self-appointed “entrepreneur” to have ideas.
Ideas are a funny thing. They can be so incredibly powerful yet as fragile as a sheet of saran wrap — if you don’t hang on to an idea just right, it’ll turn into a useless wad of plastic that you feel embarrassed to ever have cared about. When you become truly excited about an idea, there’s a tendency to become equally fearful of losing it. What if other people think my idea is dumb? Even worse, what if they love it and decide to steal my idea? What if someone else is already doing this??
Truly horrifying stuff. 😱
Enter Competition:
Like it or not, you will come across competition while working on your product. You’ll react to news of each competitor in a different way, so I like to categorize them by the type of reaction. Some of following scenarios have happened, some inevitably might, and others hopefully never will.
1) “Eh.” 😐
It’s a slow Sunday morning, so I think I’ll type in “gratitude journal” in the Apple App Store. Wow, there are a lot of these. Most of them look like they were built for iOS6 so I get back to munching on my avocado toast.
Everyone needs a friendly reminder that they aren’t alone in the world. The App Store search page always gives me this warm, fuzzy feeling. Should I be more concerned?
2) “Oh shit.” 😧
Another gratitude journal has just launched on ProductHunt. Cool logo. Wait, who made this anyway? Some engineers at Yahoo, hmm… How are the reviews? Pretty good. Are those from friends or are they real?
This is a bit more of a cause for concern. I start wondering if these founders are really “all-in” or not, if they might be seeking funding from the same investors, and if they might be eating up my market. It’s usually too soon to tell so it’s a minor freak-out.
3) “Fuck!” 😰
I’m having coffee with a friend in tech. He mentions another app that does exactly what HappyFeed does but through text messaging. Wait… that’s actually a great idea. Shit! They raised some money? Ah, how much?!
Nothing lights a fire under your ass like the idea that someone is creeping ahead of you in the race. I tend to get Seabiscuit Syndrome (yes, I just made that up from the movie). I go my fastest and perform at my best when I can see my competitors just in front of me.
4) “#$^*&!^@*!!” 😫
There’s an email in my inbox with the subject, “HappyFeed competition” from a friend in tech. The subject line is just a link — a link to a TechCrunch article explaining a new mindfulness/journaling app that just raised $10M from Andreessen Horowitz and has hundreds of thousands of ACTIVE users. My heart sinks. I freeze up. How am I going to catch up to this? Why isn’t that me?
I dread the day this happens, but thankfully I have not yet experienced this feeling. Ok, well, I did feel this a little when I read that Oprah had endorsed a competitor. Celebrity endorsements can really boost downloads! At the end of the day I know the competitor and HappyFeed have different dreams for how the world should be. Today I just view it as extra external validation for the industry.
5) Aww… How cute. 😂
It’s nice finally having an office, a hefty salary, and free Philz coffee on the rooftop café of the office. Maybe I’ll go up there myself today. I run into Sam from the design department. He mentions a cool app his friend is co-founding that is targeting a niche of our audience. “That’s cute,” I think as I ask how his friend is doing.
Unless you are Google or Apple, you probably don’t have the luxury of this reaction. But beware of the “aww’s” because those are the startups that could potentially disrupt your industry. If it’s cute enough just acquire the company: problem solved.
Being Smart About Competition
No matter what kind of competition you run into, it’s good to have a plan for how to handle it. In general I do the following:
- Record it. Each time I find a new competitor I bookmark their homepage and add their information to a tab in Google Spreadsheet appropriately named, “HappyFeed Competition.” Investors will ask about competition so it’s wonderful to have a single place to review before meetings.
- Research it. If you heard about a competitor through a friend or trusted source, it’s definitely worth looking into. Find out what makes them unique, what drives their company, and how they fit in your space. Maybe you’ll get some ideas for your own product or even find a way to work with this company.
- Get motivated. Especially when you are working on a project part-time it’s easy to forget about speed and be happy with any progress. Once you have investors and employees there’s more external motivation, but until then it’s all on you. Competition is a reminder that time does matter and only through work will you succeed.
Ultimately, you can’t worry about competition. Every other company is going to seem awesome because they are putting their best foot forward. It can’t hurt to do a little of this yourself; just be honest with your audience because they are more important than the competition. Back to work.
If you’d like to read more about my journey with HappyFeed you can subscribe to “Building Happiness.” I write a post each week discussing some of the common pitfalls, obstacles, and (hopefully) successes of starting a consumer internet startup.
Thanks for reading! 😊
