Last week an AI app in the entertainment section went viral (i think nearly 2 Million Impressions on twitter) and it is a barebone version of what we will launch in about a month.
Sadly even our design looks very similar colour and ux wise which sucks big time. I fear that we are presumed as copycats. Competitor is already funded with a few million – we are still bootstrapped.
I am feeling a bit depressed about it and don't know if it makes sense to keep going or if we should pivot into another direction. I feel that first mover advantage is important in that field and it is a winner takes it all market.
Any experience in that field?
Super similar competitor app went viral before our launch – keep going?
byu/FellowKidsFinder69 inEntrepreneur
Posted by FellowKidsFinder69
11 Comments
Unless you offer a better experience or have more funding, how can you expect to beat it?
Is there a difference in the target audience for the two apps?
That’s a pretty shitty situation and you’re right that you’ll be assumed to be a copycat. Question is, are you sure it’s a winner take all market? Your goals as a bootstrapper may be very different from the funded company. They can grow at a loss, you have to have revenue to survive. They need to capture a $1b market to make it worthwhile to VCs, you only need 1000 paying users to do very well for yourself.
You’re not playing the same game, and you’re not really in competition with each other. You can pick a narrow niche with users who’re actually willing to pay you, do a better job specifically for them, and base your advantage on quick responses to user needs, personal attention, and being small and scrappy in general.
I wouldn’t necessarily abandon ship, but you probably need to abandon the “take over the world by writing awesome code” strategy, which is fairly rare to work anyway.
If there is room for 1 there is room for 2
Maybe they’ll buy you out for some m’s
You have the better product. Full steam ahead.
Yes
Depends on execution as well. You said it’s barebones. Are your additional features a game changer? Do you guys believe that you are better at execution?
There are so many reasons any startup or company fails and others move forward. Being small and scrappy is different than being funded with people you’re accountable to.
I’m in a similar situation with an API I want to launch but a week earlier a new company emerged with a similar concept, a consumer app and 1M funding. I work full time and can only dedicate a few hours a week to the side project, but I also can do what I think is best and maybe move faster in other ways. I look at it as validation that my problem is worth solving and that there maybe a market for the idea.
Good luck to you and just think about what makes your approach unique. 🙂
View them as growing and educating the market as a good thing. My take:
1. Let them continue to raise awareness and perhaps even start commenting on those threads
2. Copy from their playbook as it makes sense for your own launch, and
3. Push to build build either a better or more niche product.
Hard to see how anyone can make a compelling argument to stop at this current moment.
What is the idea anyhow?
Who cares. Don’t worry about your competitors, work on your product market fit and execution.