

Clone Wars: Rise of the Fast Follower Startups - shakes
http://www.betabeat.com/2011/09/02/clone-wars-rise-of-the-fast-follower-startups/?show=all

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wccrawford
"We launched first, so they must have copied us." - I really wish I'd quit
hearing this.

Just because you wrote code fast and launched fast doesn't mean someone else
did. It could be they took their sweet time and had actually started first,
but you beat them to market.

It IS possible for 2 people to envision the same concept in the same way. It's
actually quite likely, given how imagination works.

Having said that, I also don't think there's anything wrong with seeing
something and thinking you can do it slightly better. That's the nature of
capitalism.

~~~
nkassis
Yeah I had a reaction like this in the past, but I got to meet the people who
worked on a similar project as mine and they did their thing completely
independently. I can't say the same of another group who took my css files for
their site. Can't be anymore obvious than that. I'm pretty sure they died off
anyway.

------
ootachi
"Last week, two ads appeared from the other side of the fence: a programmer-
for-hire looking for something to build who claimed to have built a Facebook
clone in four days, a Flickr clone in three days and a Google clone in two
weeks. He noted that he’d also created a Craigslist clone, adding, 'but no one
visits it so we are posting this ad to Craigslist.'"

The former ad is Ted Dziuba's troll post, so not serious:
[http://teddziuba.com/2011/07/the-craigslist-reverse-
programm...](http://teddziuba.com/2011/07/the-craigslist-reverse-programmer-
troll.html)

Someone might want to let the journalist know that he got trolled. :)

------
joshuacc
_Mr. Furman gets waves of clients who ask him about patenting the same thing.
“In a month, six or seven people come to me with virtually the same idea!” he
told Betabeat._

The way that certain ideas are "in the air" is fascinating to me. Presumably a
lot of this is taking a logical next step, or combining ideas that have just
been discovered/talked about.

~~~
shakes
There's a great book by Steven Johnson called "Where Good Ideas Come From"
that talks about a lot about new ideas being the logical next step or a
combination of ideas that have just been discovered/talked about. I'd highly
recommend it.

------
cHalgan
My father has saying: running business is a marathon. So from that perspective
first 100s of meters (cloning the initial version of a web site) means
nothing.

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jtagen
A friend recently told me he would no longer pursue his personal original
ideas, but rather find a recent YC company whose idea he could get behind and
create a clone.

It feels a little dirty, but the idea of tackling a problem vetted by YC and
closely watching to learn from their problems is fascinating.

~~~
zach
I was talking with a friend about how, if we were just starting out, our best
strategy would probably be to pounce on the market abandoned by an
acquisition, particularly a talent acquisition.

For example, after Fflick got bought by Google early this year, they closed
their site up. But they clearly had decent traction, users and press interest.
And if it's a straight-up talent acquisition, that's a reliable signal the
opportunities in that field of technology are substantial.

Doesn't it make sense to have another startup (a re-startup?) steal the ball
and kick it down the field when it comes to something like Fflick?

There are abandoned users who you can court right away. They've already paved
the roads as far as publicity and how to sell the idea. And it's not like the
game is over once Google buys a company. Finally, if Google turns this
technology into a hit product, you know their competitors are going to be
envious.

It made me uneasy to say but couldn't find much fault with this line of
thinking.

~~~
wanorris
This strikes me as a perfectly reasonable course. If people want something
that isn't for sale, for heaven's sake, find a way to sell it to them!

Edit: anyone ever see the movie _Robots_? "See a need... fill a need."

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gte910h
>web ecosystem rather than contemptible parasites.

That's because they're competitors. When you find a market, don't expect to
own it forever.

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sskates
Can someone point to an example where a website where a clone was more
successful, or even on the same level of success as the original? To be clear,
Facebook was not in any way a clone of Myspace or Friendster. I'm talking
about someone who posts a request saying "I want a clone of X website" and
then proceeds to turn that into a successful business.

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mathattack
This seems natural. The same things reducing the cost of first movers also
apply to second movers. The only way to win is to provide better value, either
through getting network effects quicker, or innovating more.

For better or worse the half life of competitive advantage is shrinking.

