

Ask HN: Should I Meet With My Direct Competitor? - onwardly

I'll save the full story for another time, but incredibly two things happened at a Halloween Party in Bombay:<p><i>1)</i> The brother of the founder of my web app's chief competitor was there
<i>2)</i> We made that connection<p>He suggested we meet. My question: Should I meet face to face with the CEO of my chief competitor? If so, how do I approach it?<p><i>Pros:</i> Could get his perspective on industry, have an interesting conversation, make a contact that could potentially help me.<p><i>Cons:</i> May inspire preemptive competitive response. I'm not sure its good to alert someone before you throw a brick at them.<p>Here are some facts that may or may not be relevant:<p>1) I have a prototype ready, have raised some seed capital and will be raising a bit more shortly. I don't expect to launch the product until at least February. The competitor site is well established with 20M uniques per month.<p>2) They address a different niche in the market, though we overlap some (think Macy's versus Patagonia). They've positioned themselves for a different portion of the market, and appropriately addressing my niche would cannibalize their bread and butter. But I'd hate to underestimate them.
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michael_dorfman
Maybe it's me, but I don't see the downside to meeting him. It's not a good
idea to alert someone before you throw a brick at them, but it doesn't sound
to me like you are throwing a brick at them. You're addressing a different
niche, and without knowing anything about what industry you're in, I'd bet
dollars to doughnuts that the number of customers you are going to poach from
each other is miniscule compared to the number of potential customers that are
not buying from either of you.

In my last start-up, I had a good relationship with the CEO of my major
competitor, even though I disrupted what was a very comfortable situation from
him, and took a lot of business away from him-- and we were battling for the
same, very small niche. I had a lot of respect for him, and entertained take-
over proposals on several occasions.

So, my two cents: go for it. Be respectful and humble, share only as much as
you are comfortable sharing, but be honest in what you do say.

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onwardly
I think that's good advice and aligns with what my gut is telling me. You
never know what one thing will lead to, and its certainly nothing personal, so
why not.

In terms of the number of customers we'd poach, there are definitely some. One
nice aspect to this startup is that the goal is to bring new customers to the
market, rather than poach customers.

Apologies for not divulging more details, and frankly they are pretty relevant
in this situation. But it seems like this is a common issue and something that
lots of people might have experience with.

~~~
benvanderbeek
Question: does the other guy see you as a "direct competitor?" If he has 20M
uniques per month he may not feel all that threatened (whether or not he
should). I'd say he has more to lose than you. Most likely even if he
understood 100% what you were trying to do, he wouldn't be agile enough to
address your niche. I'm with michael_dorfman, don't see the downside.

Edit: typo.

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lukevdp
As long as you're clear in your mind on what you can't say to him BEFORE you
meet with him, I think it's a very good idea.

