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Comment by matteodepalo | Hacker News Reader

I'm wondering if the reasoning that you should build a startup based on your own needs is applicable to ideas that have already been solved abroad and will not be imported in your country for some time. We don't live all in the Silicon Valley and people feel the same needs all over the world. Let's take the Stripe example. I live in Italy and I would use their product right now. Too bad they are not here and will not be here for quite a long time I foresee. Is it a good idea to create a startup that solves this need NOW for Europe? PayMill thought it was. The same for Netflix; in Italy (and most of Europe) we don't have a single decent service for renting movies online. Sometimes I feel I should build a service like Netflix here, but what if Netflix comes here 1 year later? It would probably crush my service.

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There are many, many examples of successful regional clones dominating their market to the point where the branded newcomer doesn't ever get traction. Even Google struggles against some local-language versions in some countries.

trademe.co.nz is an ebay clone that got traction in NZ long before ebay ever got going, and now ebay is nowhere there because of the network effect.

Taking a young-ish but proven business model from the USA and rolling it out in your own country can be a very viable way to get success.

However, it takes all the usual combination of drive, talent and capital to do so. And you've got to get straight onto it, because it's such an obvious idea, others will also be doing the same thing.

Meet the samwer brothers:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/the-samwer-brot...

In 1999, they founded Alando, a German clone of the online auction house Ebay. Only 100 days later, they sold the company to Ebay for about $50 million (€38 million), making them legends early in their careers. Later on, they became involved with Jamba, StudiVZ, Citydeal, Groupon, Facebook, Parship, eDarling, MyVideo, Wimdu, HelloFresh, GlossyBox, Zalando and many other Internet up-and-comers.

Yes and no.

While cloning a service in a different geographical area may be profitable and successful on the short term, it's never going to be a Facebook or a Google on a global scale. It's like opening up an Italian restaurant in a small little town that doesn't have an Olive Garden yet.

If that's the kind of business you want to be in that's fine, but it's not the high-growth kind of startup that many of us are trying to build.

It's "just" a cash cow.

I tend to feel this way as well about clones, however your example IMHO doesn't really catch the problem. If the Italian restaurant is very good and aimed at a selective audience it can win against a big brand that aims at everyone. Of course they can only win if they don't try to clone an Olive Garden. The problem here is not making something small to beat a giant competitor, it's to build something exactly like a service you know to be very very good for the purpose of having it now. Indiegogo is a good example for this; they are like Kickstarter and offer a very good service to Europe. Considering Kickstarted wont be here for a long time I think they caught a good opportunity.

On the other hand, when Netflix comes 1 year later, they might just buy you. If not they will probably have a hard time adapting to regional issues. Italian consumers are probably subtly different to US consumers.

This friction also works in reverse, though. As a startup you have a hard time to get the deals with the movie industry, while Netflix already has the connections.

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