Ask HN: Blindsided by YC competitor after MVP and starting to promote, advice? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Blindsided by YC competitor after MVP and starting to promote, advice?

19 pointspatrickxie10 comments

So a few weeks ago I pushed my startups mvp into production, and then I began to work on SEO to set the stage for promoting my startup. Shoftly after, I discovered a competitor(YC company) that I was blind to. This error in market research is due to them not doing SEO with the same keyword terms as I am, or else I would have found them long time ago when I researched the market.

If mvp is stage-1, promotion is stage-2, then they are on stage-3, they have executed what I envisioned the future iteration of my product would be, basically a functional api that is distributable to developers.

on one hand it's a relief to know you have competitors in a fresh market, which means my biggest hurdle and worry to date, validating product market fit, is gone.

It'd be encouraging to hear some personal stories of similar situation happening to you and what you ended up doing?

OP HERE, posting in comment below due to character limit.

OP HERE, continuing post in comment due to character limit.

I see several advantage and disadvantages both of our startups have.

first they might be pressured to focus on profitablity since they are funded, I don't.

they have side projects, offering courses on growth, and doing case studies, which I think are being purposed to be potential loss leaders to drive the main business. however the confusing part to me is that they are already monetizing for these side projects, which leads me to conclude that perhaps their investors are getting impatient and are pressuring them for returns already? which means that they are vulnerable to anyone that can offer the same product for free can starve them to death with a runway siege. and it will be hard for them to raise additional funding because if current investors aren't seeing good returns, how will additional investors buy in?

they are also doing a lot of inbound marketing, not yet outbound, means they have no sales team yet, first mover advantage to reach all the potential customers in the market is not yet capitalized.

plus there is always room in other markets on the globe, and I do have the language capability and freedom, and if I were to launch to a market like china for example

They have SDK for android, ios, and maintain libraries in js and python, where I am only doing python and utilizing react(native). Which means I will have smaller potential clientele, but it also means I can iterate much faster.

I do believe both of our startups have numerous similar and different challenges to overcome. I do have a couple ideas on how I could execute better to one day lead the market, if not then at least forever be a barrier to them in their journey to capture the total addressable market. Hey, nothing to lose for me right.

I think you are overthinking the issue.

Bottom line is you have competitors, there is nothing you can do about it and there are only three outcomes:

[1] You both are wrong about the market and you die

[2] One of you wins

[3] You both divide the market between you.

While it may appear good to be a monopoly,there are many inherent dangers such as complacency, risk of getting blind-sided etc

Use them as validation for your ideas. Nothing stops you from improving upon and applying their features. You now have another party to measure your effectiveness against.

Mind your business and focus on execution

or [4] they both get swallowed up by another competitor

dude just try to give your idea all you have, and let god handle the rest

1. You should work on acquiring customers / beta signups while building MVP, it should be parallel not serial. 2. Have you done any validations that it's a important problem for your customers i.e. vitamins vs painkiller 3. You shouldn't be worried about a YC competitor. Focus on building, talking to customers and growth.

Don't worry that much. I've seen two YC-funded companies that are similar to my own side project, and both failed to gain traction. As the others said, I'd worry a lot if there was NO competition (and it will be funded, count on it).

Look at different angles than they have :) . For starters, you're not competing on keywords ! :)

I-phones and Android phones both exist. I don't think either is likely to die due to the existence of the other.

Just get on with building your thing. This mostly doesn't matter.

Having competitors is great! Congratulations on that.

Now is where the real work begins. Continue to improve your product or service and you will prevail.

What is your startup?

Some people like to buy from the leader and some don't. Position your product as the alternative to theirs.

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