Competing in Startups It's Not What You Think

Everyone who building a product worries about competitors. You start with market research, comparing features and their success, trying to copy some parts and invent new ones for the difference.

Also, you have fears about them.

• “Omg! They raised a round.”
• “Oh, they are so big and have thousands of clients.”
• “Oh no, they released that feature a month earlier than we did.”
• “They have ads everywhere, but nobody knows about us.”

The one thing you really need to avoid is trying to recreate everything you're afraid of. Don't get caught up in spending a lot on advertising, trying to make your product look amazing, or desperately looking for investors.

When I was building a B2B SaaS startup, I did 300+ interviews with clients. I wanted to understand what was driving their decisions and what options they were looking at when evaluating my product.

And what I found? Only about 20% of my interviewees had any mention of our competitors.

This was a real eye-opener. It became clear that my biggest challenge wasn't convincing people to choose my product over someone else's. It was convincing them to change their existing habits. People are creatures of habit, and when it comes to adopting new products or services, the real competition lies in breaking those established routines.

The market is always big enough to find a place for your product. Competitors are a sign that there's money to be made. You will meet them one day, but in the beginning, you should fight for customer trust instead of challenging similar businesses.