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18 Comments

Multi-Million dollar competitor copying my every move

Is there anything that can be done to prevent big competitors from copying your every move?

Features, apps, tools, wording, etc. I even spoke to the owner--he told me he decompiled my app to see how I did things. I've since added wording to my TOS to make that not allowed. Even if he did legally cross a line I couldn't afford to go after them.

Or is this just part of the game? It's a bit flattering--but it's frustrating.

  1. 14

    It seems extreme in your case, but yes, it's part of the game. If you're doing something well, others who have a strong financial incentive to also do well will make an effort to copy you.

    If you're in an industry that's hyper competitive, what you need more than anything are unfair advantages… things that can't be copied. This is stuff like network effects, a marketplace dynamic, absurdly rare expertise that would take years to copy, exclusive access to distribution channels and deals, etc.

    1. 2

      It's become more competitive and it's not hard to compete in the space technically. Capturing market is the difficult part from what I've experienced. Feature differentiation used to help me but they've closed that gap.

  2. 5

    How much effort or money are you are prepared to put into making them stop? Send an official letter stating they have infringed your copyright and tell them to stop. Tell them they have 10 days after which you will charge them $XXX per day. Each week send them an update of the amount they owe. When the amount is high enough get in touch with a no-win no-fee copyright lawyer and get them to send a letter.

  3. 2

    There is nothing stopping folks from copying you. Facebook has ripped off countless features from Twitter or Snapchat. If those tech giants can’t stop people from copying their ideas, you can’t either.

    And honestly, unless he’s hurting your business, I wouldn’t worry about it. You clearly have ideas that he doesn’t have, otherwise he wouldn’t be copying the ideas.

    The only way to succeed is to be better, and faster, and offer something he can’t. Otherwise, an average product will drown in a sea of average competitors.

  4. 2

    Raise more money and innovate faster.

    1. 1

      This has crossed my mind. I haven't really wanted to raise money though. And while it's a multi-million dollar industry, it's not a billion dollar one. At least historically. VC money typically looks for companies with billion dollar potential.

  5. 1

    Sometimes it's hard to enforce things like this but depending on where you are there are various intellectual property protections and actions that can be taken to prevent this and also look to obtain damages if their copying has caused you loss of profit. Tort of passing off for example.

  6. 1

    They'll always be playing catch up and copying your mistakes as well, so just move faster than they do

  7. 1

    What they can’t copy is your relationship with your customers. So reach out to your paying customers, find out what problems they have etc.

  8. 13

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 2

      I'm not looking for someone to validate statements I made. I'm looking for advice/info about moving forward. You seem to be stuck on trying to validate what I've said.

      1. 5

        This comment was deleted a year ago.

        1. 0

          Are you trying to build a legal argument?

          1. I'd prefer to not share publicly
          2. It was over a phone call I had with him
          3. This may sound ridiculous, but he said he felt bad about it. The application is in a space with a lot of religious involvement. He seems to be fairly religious. Basically asked for forgiveness.
          1. 4

            This comment was deleted a year ago.

            1. 1

              I don't believe I'm being aggressive in anyway. I'd argue you are aggressively pushing for information I'm not wanting to share. Maintaining privacy may qualify me for being defensive.

              I struggle to see how context will help with anything other than a legal battle--which is not want I want or can afford.

              1. 5

                This comment was deleted a year ago.

  9. 5

    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

    1. 2

      Didn't FB try to buy Snap and get rejected. I bet they regret that...

      I imagine the product this guy making is really small and reproducible, so the buy vs build is in the favor of build, or he could just be feeling a strong dose of that entrepreneurial paranoia.

      I will suffix, it's not unrealistic for a PM (Product Manager) to be following him and just cashing in off his ideas. Without more context and a link to the product, I will side on entrepreneurial paranoia.

    2. 2

      Totally agree. Out-innovate competition or lose.

      1. 3

        Based off my limited experience, I'd argue having the ability to capture the market better than your competitors is actually more important than out-innovating them feature wise. What I'm learning is you need to compete feature wise--but win market wise. As engineers we always like to think the better features will win--but I no longer believe that to be true. The one who can capture the market will win.

        1. 3

          This. "Who can acquire customers" trumps "who has the better features." Most startups are marketing optimization problems, not something we can code our way out of.

  10. 5

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

    1. 4

      Just announce an incredibly big feature months in advance which will hurt them, and then switch plans.

      Make your own long term plans, and generate a bit of noise around it to distract them from the direction you're going :)

      1. 4

        That'll send the wrong signal to customers who rely on that feature being actually built and released.

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