
Ask HN: What did you do when your app/side-project was beaten to market? - throwaway32424
This has happened to me twice now and again recently. I worked on an app for around a year that I found a niche in and then a competitor came out of nowhere with more features, more marketing and a huge team with a very similar app just before I launched.<p>For the situation right now, the only options I&#x27;m seeing is focusing on being cheaper or trying to tune the UX to a specific target market. Both options don&#x27;t sound great. I&#x27;m worried about launching, being dismissed for not having a strong enough product and then having to just walk away after so much work. I don&#x27;t like the idea of abandoning customers that bought the app either.<p>Has anything similar happened to you? How did you change your plans when a strong competitor turned up? How did it work out? When do you decide to walk away?
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helen842000
It doesn't matter. Right now your entire potential customer base doesn't know
that either of you exist. Just start talking to actual people and get your
product out there.

Finding customers and making them happy is the only thing that matters.

If your competition have huge team they also have huge expenses, you have an
advantage in that you probably have a longer runway than they do.

Even if you had launched first, what would you have done if this competitor
came along and launched after you? Doesn't competition validate it being a
good idea? Why does being first matter if it's a viable niche?

If you have been working on this for a year, you should already have people
ready to be your customers. If you don't, then stop building and start
shipping.

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throwaway32424
Thanks for the advice. Really helps.

So I have some potential customers who like it. Some prefer the competitor
because it has more features but think that product is too expensive. All I
can think of right now is focus on a core set of features a target group would
need and charge less. I'm worried my competitor would just release a cut down
cheaper version later but then I guess anyone else could do that as well. Any
advice?

Affinity Designer and Illustrator before exist I suppose. Maybe I have to
focus on specific workflows and cost.

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helen842000
I would recommend not to compete on price.

By all means position yourself as more affordable but if you go specifically
after cheap customers there is no loyalty there. They will always switch to
whoever is cheapest and are a nightmare to support.

It's better to have a cut down feature-set, make sure you price based on that
value and being simpler than the competitor.

There is room for you both in the industry. Focus on the right subset of
customers and the core features that are right for them.

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karlhughes
Competition is a good thing. It means there's a market, and your competition
is a great template for pricing and marketing efforts.

Unless that competition is Google. In that case, maybe just hope they
discontinue the idea?

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segmondy
What did you do the previous 2 times?

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PaulHoule
More details would help.

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throwaway32424
Not looking for specific advice right now but just hearing about people who
went through a similar thing, what happened and what they changed for their
next attempt. It's hard to give specific details without identifying yourself
and competitors as well.

