
Ask HN: Should we give up and work on something else? - lndn_dilemna
With 4 other friends we were working for past 3 months on an app, which you can describe as &quot;tinder for clothes&quot;. We were planning to launch MVP today but it will be delayed by couple weeks. We were targeting UK market.<p>Today we found out that in last weeks identical app was launched in Singapore (shopprapp.com). The team there is already funded and is clearly couple months ahead of us.<p>We started to raise money from Friends &amp; Family and planned to work on our project. But know we realised we are couple months behind them and we are really unsure if we can face such a competition. Even if we want to face them, we cannot do that without raising more money then we initially thought. Shall we give up and start working on something else?
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lacker
It's pretty rare that some startup that just launched is your real
competition. Most startups will implode by themselves. Just ignore this Shoppr
app.

~~~
kendrickwkm
No. Don't do that. You'll be hearing more of us very soon :)

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7Figures2Commas
> Shall we give up and start working on something else?

You'll no doubt be told by a lot of folks that you should ignore the
competition and execute against your original plans. In principle, this is the
correct advice.

But this "We found competition! What should we do?" question seems to be
coming up frequently enough that I'm going to give the opposite advice,
however harsh it may seem: yes, you may want to consider giving up.

Here's why.

If you never contemplated the possibility that you'd have competition, and
that the competition might be better funded and further along than you, which
is almost a given in today's market, you did not start your venture with
realistic assumptions.

If the existence of competition worries you enough to consider abandoning your
venture _before_ you have even launched and _after_ you have asked others to
invest money in it, you must honestly ask yourself whether you will have the
stomach to keep going when you encounter _real_ challenges, like technical
hurdles that threaten your existence or disagreements with your friends/co-
founders.

Bottom line: it's virtually impossible to start a successful business with a
weak hand. If the opportunity you're pursuing is not compelling enough to keep
you from becoming easily discouraged by the slightest challenge before you are
even in the market, wait until you find an opportunity that is.

Good luck!

~~~
lndn_dilemna
Thanks a lot for this response.

> If you never contemplated the possibility that you'd have competition, and
> that the competition might be better funded and further along than you,
> which is almost a given in today's market, you did not start your venture
> with realistic assumptions.

We always saw a lot of competition in the market (at the end, there are
millions of ways people buy clothes) but didn't expect someone to be so spot
on with our vision. This was real shocker. As you said, we didn't have
realistic assumptions - it started as fun project and we thought we will
abandon it like previous one. Only with time we realised this can really be
something.

> If the existence of competition worries you enough to consider abandoning
> your venture before you have even launched and after you have asked others
> to invest money in it, you must honestly ask yourself whether you will have
> the stomach to keep going when you encounter real challenges, like technical
> hurdles that threaten your existence or disagreements with your friends/co-
> founders.

That's excellent questions. Luckily, after initial shock, I think this
motivated us to work even harder. We don't want to give up on idea we really
believe in just because someone else was couple months faster. We were
postponing launching our app for a long time, and now we decided to just
finish most important missing items and put it in Play store.

It also finally motivated me to reach out my network and try to at least have
initial meeting with _real_ investors in London. So far we only pitched to
friends who probably might have been a bit too supportive.

~~~
kendrickwkm
Hey mate, are you based in London?

Damn, and here I thought being based in SEA provides for a veil of secrecy.
Never thought we'd be out in the woodworks so early.

That's a good idea to reach out to others, I use 'The Mom Test' when
validating customer problems - [http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mom-Test-
customers-business/dp/1...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mom-Test-customers-
business/dp/1492180742)

------
hakanderyal
There is a tendency among new entrepreneurs that a startup should be based on
a unique ´idea´ to be successful.

There are tons of real world examples out there that this is not the case.

Just look at Slack. Before them, there were tens of startups worked on
chat/collaboration apps for years, most of them failing. They entered the
market when there were already established competitors (Hipchat, Flowdock,
Campfire), and yet they took the market by storm, and raised $120m, with a
valuation of $1.12b.

As always, your success depends on lots of different things, and having
competitors is rarely one of them.

On the contrary, it helps you to prove there is market for the idea.

And, as entering a market with existing competitors is pretty common scenario,
you can find lots of great advice about what you can do to gain upper hand.

Some things to consider: targeting different markets/difference in
execution/providing greater value/having stronger partnerships...

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levlaz
You will always have competition. If not now, then later. Likewise, if you
have a good product then you will always have customers. You can not focus
just on what other people are doing. If you care and believe in the project,
then focus on what you are going to do to make people want to use the product.

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yitchelle
You can think of having competition as a validation of the idea. It will come
down on how well you execute that idea!

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lovelearning
As a shopper, I care more about the features, usability, convenience, privacy
and security of a shopping app, and not at all about how much funding went
into its development. I'd say focus on those aspects of your app, and market
it too likewise.

~~~
mavenave
Hey lovelearning, I'm on Shopper's team, I think we have what you need, check
it out, [http://shopprapp.com](http://shopprapp.com) :)

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kendrickwkm
Hi lndn_dilemna,

I can see why you're having a hard time deciding whether to pursue this or
not, it's shocking working for a few months and suddenly a competitor pops up
and is going in the same direction as you.

It comes down to determination, if you are determined enough and believe your
product is better, then, as hakanderyal said, look at Slack, they took the
market by storm.

By the way, nice to meet you -- my name is Ken, I founded Shoppr.

BRING IT ON!

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allthatglitters
Fully concur with levlaz and yitchelle. Do not not give up! Perseverance.

