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56 Comments

I'm Your Competitor & I'm Going To Crush You

Scenario: You are busy building your business. Then you get an email that says this:

“I'm a competitor in your space and I'm going to make your business bleed money.”

What is the best way to respond to something like this? :/

  1. 44

    Ignore and keep working, don't respond. That's the best response.

    1. 3

      I was in a similar situation and this is the best advice. They're trying to bait you, don't take it. Block them from everything and don't waste any more energy on them.

      1. 1

        @allison What happened? I'm curious to hear.

        1. 3

          He wanted to schedule a call under the guise of us working together, which I was all for. We spent a half hour sharing details about our businesses, then he did a 180 and said he was going to copy my product and that I could either stop what I was doing and work for him (for no money, because his business made no money lol) or he was going to "crush me".

          His business is still active but he's working on a different venture now. Needless to say, I've seen zero impact on my business. IMO, these people just want attention.

          1. 2

            @allison That's incredibly savage. How did you feel after the call? If that were me, I'd probably be confused.

            1. 4

              Meh, I was annoyed he wasted my time and tried to play me. But then I forgot about it because I'm building a business and there's lots of other stuff to worry about.

              1. 2

                Oh, nice. Watcha workin on? If you don't mind me asking.

              2. 1

                Love this. Remembering to focus on what makes your product awesome, makes these kind of things instantly forgettable.

    2. 8

      This comment was deleted a year ago.

  2. 21

    "Temporary failure 550: your email was not delivered.

    This mailbox is protected by SpamHaus. Your email was rejected for looking like spam. Please resend your message with longer content."

    --

    If this person is just going to be rude to you, you are under no obligation to not waste their time.

    1. 2

      That sounds great. If he sends the email again, that would be funny as hell :))

  3. 12

    My response: sure! Glad to hear it- Iwas about to stop because the market is pretty small and not competitive. That is the scariest thing on earth.

  4. 9

    Mark their email as spam.

    You might hurt their email deliverability :p

  5. 6

    I'm with @Tiltforindie - shows me I'm on the right track!

    "Thanks for validating my business model!"

  6. 5

    That title gets attention, well done.

    I'd ignore it like @Sofranic said - there's nothing to be gained interacting with someone like that.

  7. 4

    I'm surprised that no one so far asked about the actual content of the email :)

    Did they literally just sent an email to announce that they'll destroy your business or there was more to it?

  8. 4

    If I got an email with that subject line, I’d lock my doors.

  9. 3

    With a Barney Stinson gif/meme that says " Challenge Accepted" (Similar thing happened to one of my previous companies in an industry forum and we answered with that). But actually the best is forget about it and keep going.

      1. 2

        the only barney that matters xD
        Barney Stinson of HIMYM !

  10. 3

    I've been in a similar situation few years ago. A young, brash CEO, who was recently appointed came to me in a conference and said - "You built this market and now I'm going to take it away from you". He built a company with this mindset and mentality.

    My advice to you - stay true to your core, focus on driving value to your customers, and build a sustainable business model. The long game wins.

    1. 2

      @guy1 Sounds like what you're saying is that building a company with the sole motivation of crushing competitors is NOT sustainable. Is that correct?

      1. 3

        My motivation comes from building a business around customers and not around the competition. Customer-Centered Business

        1. 1

          Ah, yes. Customer-centric. What's your 1 tip for businesses looking to be more customer centric?

          1. 2

            My POV - companies that dominate markets are the ones that deserve it - they solve the customer problem so well and they get rewarded for that. That's my focus

  11. 3

    Sharing screenshots on Twitter to memorialize it is always fun.

  12. 3

    It means that your business is going fine anyway.

    Otherwise they would not bother writing to you.

    Cheer up!

    1. 2

      I don't know about that @Ge0

      Some competitors will spare you because your business is so puny and weak that it's not a threat to them

      1. 2

        So it would mean that they are not a threat to you either. Still, I understand this this a stressful situation and I would feel bad reading such a message.

        I my opinion you're doing fine because competitors are scared and they care about you.

        If they were that dangereous, they would not bother sending a threat email.

        Anyway, I wish you all the best with your entrepreneurship and keep going on!

    1. 0

      Portabella mushroom alert?

  13. 3

    Good luck! Keep me informed. Kindest Regards - haha Seriously, why bother? Focus on your business, not the competitor

  14. 3

    "They hate us cuz they ain't us"

    It should be a sign of flattery that competitors are sizing you up and coming after you. Time to go to work!

  15. 2

    Reply back and say "I don't see any competition"

  16. 2

    Every business has competitors. It's a real validation that your product idea is good.
    Your competitor should develop a 10x better product to overtake you.
    There has been an email service before Gmail was introduced. So concentrate on your product development.

  17. 2

    Thanks for sharing your story. At least we know it can happen and there is a lot of suggestions about what to do.

  18. 2

    Print it and hang it on the wall above your work station.

  19. 2

    "Nice to meet you."

  20. 2

    from what I've read, a common reason businesses fail is that they get too caught up with eyeing competitors that they forget to focus on their own product. If I know the competitor's product, I make it a rule to check it once a month for 5 minutes to see whether they added anything new/similar to something I had in mind, but besides that it's head down to finish the race to a valuable product.

  21. 2

    good for you, some validation! don't answer it, though.

    1. 2

      @andreigaspar How are you able to post GIFs? It won't let me....

  22. 2

    "Challenge Accepted"

  23. 2

    Be happy they are even thinking about you :-). Pay attention to what they do or could do to take on some of your market share.

  24. 2

    I'd feel angry and would start poaching all his/her followers :D

    1. 1

      Don't mess with Fernanda!

  25. 2

    « Show, dont tell »

  26. 3

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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