

Ask HN: When your startup IDEA has already been built by someone else? - desushil

Lately, I have been thinking about few ideas for my future startup that I thought would be better if I built them. Some of those ideas were really great and as I was diving into them for some research, I came to found that their exists same sort of service already that is doing an excellent job. 
My recent incident just for an example, while I was reading http://www.thedeveloperscode.com/, I got an idea for making a social network that would enable people share what they are reading, host their books if they are writer and even enable them to sell them (or let peoples subscribe by paying money) depending on their preference. And I came to know that their already exists http://scribd.com that is doing great job for this. I know it sounds silly that I wasn't aware of it and neither was using Scribd already, because I am noob from a middle class family of a underdeveloped country Nepal (Asia) where Internet is just emerging and has barely touched peoples daily life, which surely has effected me too.<p>My point is, what would you guys do, if you found that somebody has already built a service that you were thinking seriously from last few months? Would you just swift change your ideas? Make improvements in your idea seeing what their demerits are and what services/features they lack? Or just dive into it without caring and start building your own? I understand that their already exist Yahoo search before Google came up, Friendster before Facebook came up, and as there was already Facebook, Google+ came up.
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struppi
That depends on a lot of factors.

Do you really, honestly think you can make it better than what already exists?
What is in it for your customers, can you make their lives better? Does your
(financial) life depend on it or do you do it as a side project for the fun of
it (1)? Can you refine your idea with real user feedback or are you on your
own? etc...

(1) I develop a community climbing blog and a web framework as side projects,
just for fun. The rules change when you do things just for fun - see also my
blog post "Why re-invent the wheel" <http://davidtanzer.net/node/81>

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sadlyNess
Well before you get serious with an idea, find out the current alternatives.
If the existing one is doing a good job, let it go. If you still think your
idea can solve a problem, find out what went wrong with those who tried to
build something similar. Competition is good and Do Not be obsessed with an
unverified idea. Confirm that its workable, then get into it.</0.02>

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doublesprout
I'm guessing you're still in Nepal. Focus on a market you know well and look
for provable business models - it'll be easy to narrow down your ideas. Also,
I wouldn't be ashamed of cloning something from somewhere else and bringing it
to your community. There are going to be opportunities in a place like Nepal
that aren't in the tech hubs.

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TMK
If you do not want competition then find an idea where there is no products
already, but this will be quite hard as there is so many companies already
making products and lots of em.

If you want to compete which might be fun and drive you to make your
service/product better and better everyday. Then do that and try to survive.

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amorphid
Learn how to sell and make money online. Everything else will fall into place.

