Ask HN: Other startups are cloning my startup - what should I do? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Other startups are cloning my startup - what should I do?

13 pointsmartian10 comments

As my startup becomes more successful I'm noticing that more of our competitors are wholesale copying our website. Page layouts, search features, registration flows, and business logic, to name a few. One site stole our tagline. Another posted on ODesk asking for developers to blatantly create a clone of our site.

Imitation is flattery, but I'd much rather this didn't happen.

Is there anything I can do?

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Stop and be flattered, you're clearly doing something right.

If they're just copying you, continue to innovate. If one of them actually manages to come up with a good idea, steal it.

Above all, realize that the idea itself is not sufficient. The value lies in you, not the idea. You have to deliver a better product.

It's your opportunity to contact investors and present yourself as the Category Creator prior to the copycats - one of AirBnb's investors said they only invest in the category creator.

Clone them back - what are they doing that inspires you or you haven't thought of?

Call them out on your blog.

Find where they are leaving comments around the web and call them out.

It's good news to see people wanting to do the same thing, as it's a kind of validation.

I can understand your being upset by the wholesale copying.

Sometimes the competitor can't actually deliver on what they promise: if you contact them, you could offer them affiliate marketing fees for sending traffic to your site (which presumably can deliver on what it promises).

You can probably report the ODesk job offer to ODesk. Their policies / Terms of Service probably include something like "Don't post jobs which constitute intellectual property infringement."

Lastly, you could just be the best in your category, and beat your competitors regardless of their shady tactics.

Thanks for the ODesk tip -- I'll check into it.

And I agree that the best way to win is to be the best. :-)

Developing your marketing may help you make the impression (stake your claim) that you are that service- the others just echo your operation. But if someone doesn't know to think of you first when they need your service, you're easily usurped. Making a strong impression to your market matters as much as tour technology sometimes.

Best of luck...

It means the barriers to entry in your market aren't high enough. Seek a new business model, or live with it.

Execute better than them and keep innovating to stay a step ahead...

1. Ignore

2. Focus on your what you're doing and innovate

3. Market better and faster

URL please.

If you have not patent your business models, there is nothing you can do. For every Groupon, there is Living Social, and others... might as well keep innovating, and stay ahead of competition.

I am not sure about your website because I don't see the link, but if it's something you can patent, then you should do it, then you can sue. :)

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