

Ask HN: should a one-man shop compete with a well-funded startup? - chzz

I am working on a project which I feel really excited about. There are no similar products today on the market, but I get to know that one startup was funded millions of dollors, with dozens of excellent engineers&#x2F;designers, is working on the similar idea and making good progress. I&#x27;m in my 30s and quit my well-paid job to work on this. Should I give it up now? Thanks HN.
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mswen
If you have the full-stack development skills to develop this on your own you
may be able to beat them to market. If it is a consumer product where viral
adoption can happen you might get a big enough start just by being first to
market. It can be intimidating to face a team - but recall that teams have
communication overhead, often multiple competing visions for the product that
need to be resolved and time sucked up into numerous activities that don't
directly speed product development.

If this is a product for enterprises then you are at a greater disadvantage.
First to market doesn't mean as much, as all the positive reassuring signals
that funding sends.

Every product category needs competitors. Even if you do not succeed at being
#1 in a new product space, you also don't need the same kinds of revenue to
make it work. Your expenses are much lower and your equity is much higher.

Finally, the fact that investors and a team also think this general product
category has promise worthy of funding is validation that you are on the right
track.

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chzz
Thank you. It is very comforting to hear your opinion.

I have lots of experience with full-stack development so I know that I can
build a good product. I raised millions before from my bootstrapped products a
few years ago. However, having a one man fight against a group of extremely
talented people with millions in bank and celebrity investors backing is
giving me lots of fears. I hope the fears will do good to me :)

It's just this urge inside me that keeps driving me to work on this project. I
think it's exciting, beautiful and will be really helpful to others. I cannot
stop myself working on it, even though my reasonable other half tells me I
might as well stop.

