There was a great article on news.YC the other day about some of intuit's reasons for success. This quote stuck in my mind:
"Your competition isn't other companies, but the way things are done now"
There were like dozens of other companies working on personal finance software, and the intuit founder instead concentrated on his biggest foe: pen and paper. And hey, if it's a big enough market, it can support many different companies!
yeah, let's face it. You ALWAYS have to assume there is someone else out there doing the same thing you are doing. That shouldn't sway you though. The point is to do it better than them. Reading pg's book has great (and funny) commentary on dealing with the competition...
"Your competition isn't other companies, but the way things are done now"
There were like dozens of other companies working on personal finance software, and the intuit founder instead concentrated on his biggest foe: pen and paper. And hey, if it's a big enough market, it can support many different companies!