[danielharan]

Facebook came after MySpace and Friendster, Google had entrenched competition. If investors don't get that, I wouldn't want them on my board.

Before starting I made a list of all my potential competitors. Then I spent some money getting industry data, and found out none of them actually had traction with bigger companies.

And then I changed products, twice, each time redefining who the competition was. BI? Recommendation engine? Advertising optimization platform? Recoset could end up as any of these, depending on customer validation.

Finally, every week there's a new potential competitor announced. I don't care: my focus isn't on winning against anyone else, it's making sure I have a viable business model.