Totally agree with "it's not about being the first, it's about having it right". But that's why I'm not so sure about "building a working prototype from day one". In Spotify's case, they launched when they already had developed a mac and a pc client. To "have it right", you sometimes need to spend a fair amount of time before launch. Look at Instagram... Their iphone app was pretty much solid at launch: many lenses, clean and distinctive UI, great integration with social platforms, no bugs, no downtime... In Kik's case, they had an iphone, an android and a BB client at launch. This article by @gigaom wraps up my thougt on that. Anyway, this is a nice deck :)